A COUNCILLOR has sounded calls for better sexual education in schools after facing disgusting catcalls in front of her 14-year-old son.

Hartlepool councillor Amy Prince has revealed how she’d faced vile sexual comments from a van driver on a Sunday afternoon while walking along Raby Road to catch a bus.

The Labour member gave the account at the latest Cleveland Police and Crime Panel after new commissioner Steve Turner set out how tackling violence against women and girls was one of his top ten priorities.

Cllr Prince said: “I was walking with my 14-year-old son and got catcalled quite violently.

“I was pretty shaken and so was my son.

“Are we looking at education in schools?

“The way that man spoke to me was absolutely foul – and my son was genuinely hurt that someone would speak to his mum like that.

“Especially as it was in the middle of the day on a Sunday.”

A survey was carried out by the commissioner’s team over the summer showing more than four in five female respondents felt unsafe across Cleveland.

Almost 48 per cent of respondents said they felt “very unsafe” with more than a third feeling “fairly unsafe” in the region’s town centres at night.

Lewd comments while exercising outdoors and poor lighting in parks were highlighted as making women feel unsafe.

The survey also found the most common form of harassment was wolf whistling which had been experienced by almost three-quarters of respondents.

In response to Cllr Prince, Mr Turner said there was a “real challenge” in approaching such problems.

He added: “I think domestic violence is quite a hidden crime.

“I can talk quite comfortably about some of our rural communities where behaviour is taken for granted because it’s passed down from father to son, and mother to daughter.

“In some other communities, it would be classed certainly as coercive control, if not domestic abuse.

“That’s not recognised in those communities because it’s always happened – a man goes out to the pub on Sunday and expects his dinner on the table when he comes back.

“It’s very cliché, and thankfully not as common as it used to be, but it is still there – and there is an educational element to that.”

Disgusting comments

After the meeting, Cllr Prince told how her experience had shaken up both her and her son.

She added: “As a parent you always want to protect your kids while explaining there are awful people in the world but you don’t want them to experience it.”

The Throston councillor said the culprit was a man parked in a white van on a Sunday at 12.30pm.

She told the Local Democracy Reporting Service how the comments included “cracking **** love” and another vile sexual slur.

Cllr Prince added: “As we walked away he shouted something else.

“But at that point I was so shaken, I didn’t know what he’d said. I asked my son if he heard – he said he did, but I didn’t want to know.

“It was quite intimidating.”

“Something we’ve got to get a handle on”

The Cleveland survey on violence against women and girls also found more than a third of respondents (35.5%) said they had experienced sexual harassment, sexual assault, or rape.

Only 12% of victims said they reported incidents to the police.

In its aftermath, Mr Turner said the survey findings were “truly shocking” and showed there was a lot to be done to increase women and girls’ feelings of safety.

The findings have informed Cleveland’s bid for “Safer Streets 3” – a pot of money aiming to combat violence against women and girls which was launched in response to the death of Sarah Everard.

Mr Turner also told the crime panel how meetings had been held with Durham and Northumbria’s police leaders to look at how they commissioned sexual assault referral centres in the region.

The commissioner added: “We need to develop a much broader approach to sexual and domestic violence.

“It’s something we’ve got to get a handle on.”

After the meeting, Cllr Prince wasn’t overly impressed with the commissioner’s response on educating youngsters.

“That’s what we need to do – we need to be educating our children that adults don’t behave like that,” she added.

Cleveland will find out if its bid for Safer Streets 3 is successful next month.

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