A 19-year-old BRITISH girl revealed that she was harassed and groped in a sexual attack by 30 men who threatened to rape her.
The victim of the horrific experience in Milan said she was attacked by an “organized” group of men she did not know while celebrating the New Year with friends.
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The teenager spent the evening with two English friends and a group of six Belgian students he met in Italy.
They headed to the Piazza del Duomo to watch the fireworks, when what should have been a night of celebrations turned into a horrific sexual attack.
In harrowing testimony, the Briton describes being “grabbed and pulled back” as she passed through a busy crowd surrounded by approximately 30 men she did not know.
She said: “They held my arms, my hands. “I couldn’t defend myself.”
The teenager told how “several men, at the same time,” began to grope her “while another tried to pull up my dress.”
And he added: “I was fighting to free myself and they enjoyed my anguish.”
The 19-year-old said one man tried to sexually assault her with his hands and claims another talked about raping her.
She chillingly revealed that the attackers “enjoyed” her distress while she “panicked and fought for freedom,” which “only excited my attackers.”
The British woman explained how she had to “fight to survive” in the horrific “dehumanizing” experience, adding that she escaped and was saved by her friends when she started screaming.
After returning safely to the UK, the 19-year-old said she is struggling to regain her trust and faith in humanity after experiencing the feeling that she was going to be killed or raped in a country she thought was safe. .
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Speaking to Belgian media, she said: “I am heartbroken to have to fight this battle at the beginning of my adult life.”
The Briton said there was no police presence at the bustling location when they arrived.
And men in balaclavas had been caught dangerously shooting fireworks into the crowd before the clock struck midnight.
The 19-year-old explained how she and a friend had left the group to find a bathroom when she felt a man trying to grope her and pull at her dress as she walked through the square.
He said he lost the man in the crowd after trying to ignore the vile attention.
Talking about the events with Sudinfo and online mail, The teenager said she felt unsafe walking through the crowd and that authorities had made no attempt to organize the chaotic event.
Just before the New Year’s countdown, the girls in the group said they felt uncomfortable and shared that they had felt men touching them.
The 19-year-old said: “On the way back to meet the group after the bar we were more cautious but rejoined the others quickly.
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“However, that was when I started to feel insecure: all the men we passed were staring at us and I felt trapped between them.
“At approximately two minutes after midnight, the girls began sharing that they too were feeling uncomfortable and had felt the men beginning to touch them.
“However, at that point there was no escape and we were forced to stand next to our male friends for safety and wait for the fireworks.
“This was our biggest mistake.”
The teenager explained that when the boys in her group became “distracted” and “took out their phones to record the New Year countdown,” they grabbed her and separated her from her friends, marking the beginning of the heinous attack.
While bravely fighting off the attacking men, the British woman said she was injured and left bleeding.
But the teenager said an “unknown liquid” was thrown at her that caused her eyes and nose to sting, leaving her and her friends “feeling like we couldn’t breathe.”
And she added: “All the men I met, around 40 years old, tried to grope me, lift my dress, separate me from my friends or fight with me.”
The teenager and her friends were saved “only by the adrenaline and bravery of my friends” as they desperately fled from the crowd.
Just when they thought they were safe for a brief moment, the attackers caught up with her and began beating her friend, she claims.
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It was at that moment that the teenager was grabbed again and separated from the group.
The 19-year-old explained how she heard the screams of another English woman next to her, who she said was being held down and sexually assaulted by the group.
She bravely tried to intervene and the screaming woman was able to free herself, but the attackers turned their anger on her.
The teenager and her friends were able to try to escape when the commotion caused the crowd to disperse.
But the attackers caught up to the group and grabbed his body while laughing.
After finally being able to escape the horrific experience, they “desperately” searched for the police, who appeared to scare away the attackers.
The teen said there were no police in the square and when they finally found officers, they allegedly said they “couldn’t do anything.”
She said: “When I showed them the bloody wounds on my arms and explained that I and many other women had been sexually assaulted, their attitude changed.”
The officers then called for backup and took a full statement before a female officer comforted her and told her that this was a “known issue and that our attackers were Bangladeshi men.”
Italian media reported at the time that the men had been identified only as second-generation North African men.
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The 19-year-old said she wanted to tell her story to “dispel some of the misinformation being shared online and ensure our story is heard.”
He said the attack “is also not a reflection of all Bangladeshi people or people not native to Italy.”
The 19-year-old added: “This was an organized group of disgusting men, who deserve to suffer the consequences of their actions.”
The teenager said locals welcomed her “kindly” and helped her walk home to town after the incident.
He added that he is currently in the process of filing a legal complaint through the Italian embassy in England.
Investigators are also currently speaking with other women to understand the full “scale” of the attack.
