Kirsty Gallacher shares police update after being attacked on central London street

Broadcaster Kirsty Gallacher has called for a ‘stronger police presence’ on the London streets following her attack by a stranger.

The TV presenter, famously of Sky Sports, was left shaken after a man approached her on a ‘well-lit’ street while she was walking to her car at around 7pm on Tuesday.

Unprovoked, he began kicking her ‘like he was kicking a football’ before scarpering off.

Kirsty, 49, said he was ‘all in black, covered up’, and, since she is ‘always vigilant’, she sensed almost immediately that something wasn’t right.

Unfortunately, she has now been left with bruises and feeling disappointed by the public’s reaction. Despite one witness rushing to her aid, she claims a security guard in a nearby store was ‘useless’ and did nothing.

A few days on from the incident, Kirsty has shared a new statement, expressing her gratitude for her followers’ support.

Taking to her Instagram Story on Thursday, she wrote: ‘Just a quick note to say a huge thank you for all your love and support, it means the world to me & clearly most of you agree that something needs to change’.

She continued: ‘I spoke about this incident to raise awareness. This sort of behaviour is not OK. There needs to be a stronger police presence on the streets of London, especially at night, there was no one there for me. Thankfully it was not a more serious assault.’

Kirsty added that she has declined to give interviews on the matter, since the Metropolitan Police are ‘dealing with the situation’.

‘People like this need to be caught before they commit more serious crimes’, she concluded.

Underneath her original post, Kirsty was inundated with comments from pals in the industry, who were stunned by what had happened.

‘Thank you so much for sharing this Kirsty! This is so horrible, it made me angry and upset just listening to your story. Really scary. Hope you’re ok. Sending lots of love ❤️❤️’, commented Fleur East.

‘Kirsty so so sorry to hear this. Sending tons of love and support’, Ben Shephard wrote.

‘This is awful – am so sorry – very brave in sharing such an important message but hope YOU are ok ? 💕💕’, added Kate Garraway.

Lisa Snowdon echoed: ‘Oh Kirsty I’m so angry and so utterly devastated that this happened to you. It’s horrific. I’m sending you a huge hug my love ❤️😢’

Kirsty previously said that the attack occurred on a street she uses most nights when making her journey home.

However, she is mindful of taking precautions, which include wearing a cross-body bag to shield her belongings and keeping her hands free.

Following the assault, she stated that she ‘couldn’t have done more’ to protect herself.

‘I just stood there, and I just couldn’t actually believe that someone, a stranger, has just decided, for whatever reason—whether he’s got a problem with women, whether he’s just an opportunist—he decided he did not like me, and he just thought, “Nah, I’ll give you the boot”,’she said.

‘You always think it’s not going to happen to me, and that was me.’

Earlier this year, a Survation poll conducted on behalf of ITV News explored how safe women feel on the streets of London. Notable findings included 57% of women saying they feel unsafe, a figure that rose to 68% among 18-24 year olds.

Half of the women surveyed said they believe London has become less safe over the past five years, and 47% said they have been followed at least once, while 50% have been verbally abused and 27% have been physically or sexually assaulted.

At the time, Jess Phillips, the Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls, said she was ‘saddened’ by the numbers but not surprised.

‘Every woman I know has been harassed at some point in their life,’ she said.

‘Trying to plan as you’re walking, or somebody’s following you, or you perceive that somebody is following you. That is a harrowing thing.’

The Labour Party has further said it will ‘take back our streets’ and tackle the ‘scourge’ of violence against women and girls.

This remark comes after the aforementioned survey revealed that 58% of women believe London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan is not doing enough to keep women safe.

‘We’ve got a situation across the country where every three days a woman is killed at the hands of a man, and across the globe, it is every 10 minutes,’ he has said.

‘We’ve made sure we get involved in public education, made sure boys understand about healthy relationships and about respecting women, changing the law in relation to making public harassment of women in the public space of criminal offence, recording examples of misogyny, but also invest in record sums in tackling violence against women and girls.’

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