''They told me to change my clothes. I changed the law instead.''

Gina Martin’s campaigning to change legislation led to upskirting being made a criminal offence in 2019.

Whilst it was a big win for sexual violence activists across the country, there is still a long way to go in the fight against sexual violence against women.

Women’s Equality Party’s candidate for Lambeth and Southwark Korina Holmes says that the problem goes beyond just legislation, as resources and representation will lead the way for bigger changes.

“Upskirting was something that was completely trivialised and normalised before the campaign and it’s been something that was really needed since the legislation passed,” she said.

“However, with the number of cases of rape and sexual assaults reported to the police rising in the last five years but prosecutions have fallen from one in nine to one in 16 cases. City hall and county councils are pointing fingers at each other about where the funding lies.

“And it just doesn't help all the thousands of women and girls who experience violence every year in London.”

Going on to talk about the problems of politics and how women’s lives can change Holmes said:  “I’m a mixed-race woman and I live in a borough with a high proportion of black women and women of colour don’t trust the police and don’t want to report to the police. 

“They don’t think they’re going to be listened to either. So that is obviously going to have an impact.

“One of our key policies is representation in politics, the majority of our candidates for the London Assembly are BAME women.

“We’ve got people from different backgrounds who are able to provide different views and outlooks on the life of Londoners instead of the same old face who keep missing the things that need to be addressed.

“One of the key things to understand is that it is a privilege for women to come forward and be open about what happens to them because it isn’t that way for everybody.”

Holmes emphasised the need for more accessible services, no matter who they are for.

Whilst there will be so many that will benefit from this legislation change its only a beginning for denormalising the sexual violence women face against predators on a regular basis. 

The gruelling process as mentioned by Martin herself took over a year to put in place and set in motion.

She explained her experience with Parliament saying: ‘’Party politics is a game I’ve seen it. We met with all parties, that was important to us. And that’s because this wasn’t a Labour issue or a Conservative issue, it was a human issue.’’

Martin also received death and rape threats throughout her campaign.

Her campaign was prompted by her own experience when watching The Killers in July 2017 after a man put his phone between her legs and took pictures. 

When she went to the police, they could not do anything because upskirting was not a specific offence and her case was closed. 

A few days after, Martin put her experiences into a Facebook post that went viral with other women sharing their experiences of upskirting.

A petition followed soon after, granting over 50,000 signatures and the attention of Liberal Democrat MP Wera Hobhouse. 

With the encouragement of government ministers, Hobhouse bought a private members bill fronting the creation of an offence for upskirting. 

At the time Martin told BBC News: "If a new law's there, great - but if we don't know about it or aren't reporting it, [then] it doesn't do anything.

"We have to build a picture of how much this happens, because it happens a lot."

But the initial bill was blocked by a Tory MP, Sir Christopher Chope, who was also criticised for also blocking a law protecting girls from female genital mutilation (FGM).

When she asked him directly why he decided to vote against it, to which he responded that: “He hadn’t read it.”

Martin spoke about her experience of confronting Chope during her TED Talk saying: “When I confronted him he claimed that he objected to it on ‘principal’ and thought the bill was ‘trivial’.”

She worked with lawyer Ryan Whelan, to write the initial legislation modelled on Scotland’s upskirting offences law.

Following this, they pushed the bill forward and secured government backing on 15 July 2019.

The Voyeurism (Offences) Act 2019 also ensures that the most serious offenders, where the purpose of the offence is for sexual gratification, are made subject to notification requirements (often referred to as being placed on the sex offenders' register).

Under the law now, a conviction at the Magistrates court would carry a prison sentence of up to a year or a fine.

More serious offences, heard in the crown court, carry up to two years in prison. 

The Voyeurism Act also allows upskirting to be treated as sexual offence, rightfully and ensure that the most serious offenders can be placed on the sex offenders registers. 

The first year of having the upkskirting legislation in place saw 16 upskirting offences being prosecuted, with ten men convicted of the offence.

70% of those upskirting offences took place in the aisles of retail stores. Like concerts, public transport and schools, these spaces have become increasingly unsafe for women.