A WOMAN who teaches self defence classes to city women says even she doesn’t feel completely safe walking streets at night.

And Sally Gleaves, a Taekwondo World Champion, has said she wishes there wasn’t a need for her class and that women could feel safe when out alone.

The 34-year-old was speaking after women shared their experiences of concerns about their safety when alone in public places at night, after the disappearance of Sarah Everard in London.

The Worcester resident, who works for the county council’s Adult Learning Worcestershire in her day job and as an instructor at Worcestershire Martial Arts at night, said: “I teach martial arts and self defence to women but in an ideal world I shouldn’t have to do it.

“Women have been taught to put all these safety protocols in placesuch as pretending to be on the phone, text ahead when walking home, keep your head down, don’t exercise after dark and carry a rape alarm. Why should they have to?

“I saw presenter Ellie Phillips say we should be able to go down town at 2am in the morning and skip down the road, and not have the fear of being attacked.

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“Even for myself, as someone who can defend herself, I have never ever felt 100 per cent safe, it’s 95 per cent. The time I would feel unsafe is at night - but again why should I have to feel like that. It is all about eduction at a young age, challenging the behaviour that becomes normalised. When I was growing up, where was the class for men saying call out behaviour amongst other men, speak to your female counterparts, stand up for women, don’t rape? We also need more men to step up and ask ‘what can we do to help’, ‘what is it we can put in place to help women feel safe’. That’s all men, from a friend all the way up to the Prime Minister.

“It is a sad world when women and little girls can’t feel safe.”