A woman left “terrified” to use public transport after being sexually assaulted on an Elizabeth Line is backing a campaign for women-only Tube carriages.
Amber Dowling-Doyle was on the train home from an after-work pint on Friday June 2, when the assault happened.
The 24-year-old says she was travelling on the Elizabeth Line service from Liverpool Street station towards Essex when a man approached and attempted to speak to her while she had her earphones in.
After trying to ignore him, Amber says the man 'grabbed her arm' and stood in front of her to 'cage her in'.
Amber claims the man then placed his hand on her leg, before sexually assaulting her.
Luckily, other passengers on the train saw the assault take place and intervened.
Amber says one man 'tackled' the perpetrator off of her while someone else phoned the British Transport Police, who arrested the male at Stratford Station.
The part-time model and pet sitter says she was 'terrified' to get back on a train following the incident and was referred for therapy.
The offender - who Amber chose never to learn the name of - was sentenced at Thames Magistrates Court on December 11, after pleading guilty to the charge of sexual assault at an earlier hearing.
He was given a 16-week suspended prison sentence, suspended for two years, and ordered to pay Amber £900 compensation.
Amber says the sentencing helped to give her 'closure' and she is now backing a campaign for female-only carriages to be introduced on the Transport for London (TfL) Underground.
The petition comes as figures from TfL revealed that reported sexual offences on the London Underground have reached their highest level in five years.
Amber, from Brentwood, Essex, said: "This man came up to me and he was trying to talk to me with my earphones in.
"I couldn't hear him, wasn't paying any attention to him, and that's when he grabbed my arm and was saying I was being rude and stuff like that.
"He got quite verbal and was calling me rude for ignoring him.
"On the train I was on there's glass panels between the seats so you can't go to the side or anything or fall off the chair.
"He'd positioned himself in front of me to cage me in there and that's when he put his hand on my leg and he sexually assaulted me."
Amber says the incident was stopped by other passengers on the train who intervened.
Amber said: "Another woman on the train saw and said 'leave her alone'.
"After a few moments a man that was on the train who had seen came down to intervene.
"He tackled him to get in the way and off of me.
"The perpetrator got incredibly aggressive and violent - shouting out different threats to this man who had helped me.
"This then caused other people to get involved.
"This was all at Stratford Station where someone had already called the British Transport Police and they met us at the platform."
Amber says she feels 'grateful' that the other passengers on the train intervened.
Amber said: "It was surreal. Even though I was in public, I felt like I was the only person with him on that train.
"I don't blame other people [for not wanting to get involved] but as soon as that first woman said leave her alone, it took the wind out of me.
"I was relieved that people were actually seeing this and somebody had said something.
"It was the relief that I'm actually going to be believed - as a woman that is such a big fear when it comes to things like this, of not being believed or blamed even.
"I'm grateful to the strangers. It's something I've not forgotten about and I probably won't ever."
Amber says she has been in therapy since the incident and is still 'terrified' to get back onto train.
Amber said: "I got on a train the other day and I was terrified still and that's six months later, I'm still nervous.
"I had to get back on the train [for the first time] three weeks after it happened."I felt like I was shaking the whole time - I wasn't but my whole body felt like it was vibrating.
"I had this thing in the back of my mind that something bad was going to happen.
"I didn't put my earphones in once, just in case anyone came up to me. That was a nightmare, it was absolutely horrible.
"After that I didn't get back a train again until August.
"Therapy has definitely helped the past few months a million per cent, it's definitely helped to keep my head above water."
After attending the hearing and coming face-to-face with the perpetrator in court, Amber says she now has 'closure'.
Amber, said: "I knew it was going to be hard [to be in court] but I needed to hit that bottom in order to start coming back.
"I saw him and he recognised me and they read out my impact statement in the court room, which I wasn't expecting.
"It took a massive toll on me mentally, it felt like I was in there for two hours and five minutes at the same time.
"It was really emotional but as soon as I heard his sentence, I slumped back in my chair.
"Not only are the conviction rates for sexual assault against women really low, most of the time it's just a warning or a fine or something like that.
"I feel like I've got closure now, and it's sort of let me come back to life a bit."
Amber says justice being served in her favour has allowed her to have a 'fresh start' to the New Year.
Amber said: "It's definitely put me in a better spot to start the New Year.
"He pleaded guilty the first time - but before that there was a chance that this would go on for a year or two years. Even just thinking about that was absolutely disgusting.
"Now that I've got this closure and that chapter's closed, I've noticed that I'm getting my life back and it's a really, really, great feeling."
Amber is now backing a petition for women-only carriages to be introduced on the tube.
The petition, calling for Sadiq Khan and Transport for London to protect women by introducing at least one women-only carriage on all tube lines, was set-up by 21-year-old student Camille Brown.
Figures released by Transport for London (TfL) in response to a Freedom of Information request, state that there were 595 sexual offences across all Tube lines in 2024-25.
The figures are the highest they have been since 2019-20 when there were 776 reports.
Amber said: "Looking at all the numbers and things like that, it seems like [women-only carriages are] the only rational thing to keep women safe.
"I was assaulted on a Friday night but that doesn't mean that another woman isn't being assaulted on her Tuesday morning commute.
"I feel very, very big about that."
Amber is now encouraging other women who have been sexually assaulted to 'speak-up' and report it to the police.
Amber said: "Don't be scared. I know it's intimidating - especially that gnawing feeling of 'Am I going to be believed?'
"That's a terrifying feeling and it's so unfair but don't be scared to speak up.
"Don't try and deal with it all on your own because it's all consuming and it's hard.
"Being sexually assaulted, talking about sexual assault, going through the whole motion of the system is uncomfortable.
"Sometimes you have to be a little bit uncomfortable to be free."
A British Transport Police spokesperson said: "No woman or girl should ever feel unsafe or uncomfortable when travelling by rail, and we take all reports of unacceptable and unwanted sexual behaviour on the railway network seriously.
"Our officers work tirelessly to prevent incidents from occurring in the first place, and investigate incidents that do occur to identify offenders and bring them before the courts to face justice. We also work extremely closely with our partners across the rail industry to helping ensure the railway is a safe place for everyone.
"No incident is too small to report, and it's important to remember that sexual harassment is never your fault. We encourage all passengers to save our text number, 61016, so they can discreetly get in touch if they have any concerns."
