A Manchester student has shared a deeply upsetting video revealing the misogynist abuse she suffered during a recent journey on a university bus in the city centre.
Posted on a private Facebook group on 17 April, the student who wishes to remain anonymous for obvious reasons, shared three videos which captured an unknown individual subjecting her to horrific levels of verbal abuse while riding a Stagecoach bus near the unis.
Said to have occurred on the 42C service from Handforth Dean to Piccadilly Gardens along the Oxford Road corridor, the student boarded the bus and soon began to be abused by “a guy in his early 20s”.
Just to pre-warn you, there’s some very upsetting stuff in here:
The anonymous Manchester student was subjected to a misogynist rant for several minutes.
Despite trying to ignore him, the man continues to abuse her indirectly, launching into a disgusting, misinformed and utterly deluded diatribe against women.
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As the student wrote in the caption: “Just want to draw people’s attention to something that happened to me about 3pm today getting on the 42C bus by uni. As I get on the bus there was a guy in his early 20s (white, blonde shaggy hair, tracksuit) with a beer bottle in hand on a pretty unsettling misogynistic rant.
“He soon turned his attention to me as a lone female passenger on the bus – he called me a bitch multiple times, told me he’d thought about killing his family and that he might kill me one day and asked me why I was so frightened of him.”
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She explains how “two lovely girls asked [her] to get off the bus early with them” and as she disembarked he remarked, “yeah I’d advise you do get off the bus because I’m going to f***ing kill you if you don’t”. Truly disturbing and concerning stuff.
The Manchester student said she reported the misogynist abuse and death threats to 111 but was told it was “probably just a one-off incident” and that “he’d just had a few too many”. However, as you can hear in the audio, the man sounds fairly able to articulate, beer in hand or not.
As she went on to add, “I believe he’s probably on this bus multiple times a week harassing multiple different women and I want students to be made aware… I just want people to be especially vigilant and look after each other when using public transport.”
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She also encouraged others who may have experienced similar to get in touch should they need to talk about it and one person in the comments noted that “someone of a similar description outside of Cornbrook [tram stop] at around 6pm.
“Very similar slurs, primarily attacking women or those that appeared as such as they walked past. Very threatening language and spitting everywhere. Absolutely disgusting.” What’s saddening to know is that she will won’t be the only female Manchester student to have been made feel uncomfortable on public transport around the city.
We approached Greater Manchester Police for further comment but they are yet to respond; neither Transport for Greater Manchester, Stagecoach nor the universities are yet to issue a statement either.
It goes without saying that we’re so sorry she had to go through this and we’d urge any who has been through a similar experience to raise the issue with the likes of GMP and TfGM to help better police these incidents.
Manchester locals appealing for more information over a month after from finding family member’s body
Danny Jones
A Greater Manchester family are still calling for more information now over a month on from the discovery of a man’s body at his Chorlton home.
William Riddell, 49, was found dead in the bedroom of a property on Astbury Avenue at approximately 11:35pm on Sunday, 10 November after being found by his stepdaughter, Sarah Hayden.
Details surrounding his passing are still scarce but a 47-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of murder but has since been released on bail “pending further enquiries”, leaving Sarah and the rest of her family still none the wiser as to the exact nature of his death.
Preparing to spend their first Christmas without him, they have issued a desperate appeal for more information, urging anyone who might have information to come forward.
#APPEAL | The family of a man who died last month are appealing to the public for information as they face their first Christmas without him.
Billy Riddell was sadly found dead at his property in Manchester, with enquiries continuing.
Riddell, more commonly known as Billy by those close to him, was described as a “good, caring man with a big heart” and a popular figure in the local area.
Speaking via Greater Manchester Police, Sarah, said: “I want to be Billy’s voice and get answers for him. Billy was a nice and lovely man and all the community knew who he was. He was well-liked and we gave him a good send-off at his funeral.
“I would just ask anyone who knew him or has any information to come forward and tell police. Even if you think it’s a little or small thing – please come forward. We just want to get to the bottom of what has happened.”
Detective Inspector Alex Wilkinson, who serves on GMP‘s Major Incident Team, added in an official statement: “The family of Billy deserve answers following his death and we are working hard to ensure they get exactly that.
“We have closely supported Sarah and the wider family over the last month, and we will continue to provide assistance wherever we can as they face their first Christmas without him.
“While a suspect has been bailed, we are still working flat-out to understand more about Billy’s life, the people he was close to, and events leading up to his death just over a month ago.”
With that in mind, both GMP and Riddell’s family are asking anyone who might know anything or have information regarding people associated with Billy to come forward, reiterating that “even if you consider something to be small – your help could greatly benefit our investigation.”
You can contact police via 101 or by using the live chat function HERE, quoting log 3227 of 10/11/24.
Alternatively, you can contact the UK’s independent charity, Crimestoppers, anonymously on 0800 555 111 or online.
Government aims to ‘turn the tide’ on homelessness with £1 billion funding boost
Emily Sergeant
Nearly £1 billion of funding is being pumped into Council budgets to help “break the cycle of spiralling homelessness” in 2025.
As part of the Government‘s wider ‘Plan For Change’, and in a bid to help tackle, reduce, and prevent homelessness next year, it’s been announced that more resources will be be made available for workers on the frontline who provide essential services to get rough sleepers off the street and into secure housing.
This significant investment means Councils will now be “better equipped” to step in early and stop households from becoming homeless in the first place.
According to the Government’s plans, these funded measures will include mediation with landlords or families to prevent evictions, helping homeless people find new homes, and providing deposits to access private renting.
This government is determined to tackle, reduce and prevent homelessness.
— Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Gov (@mhclg) December 18, 2024
The funding will also be used to address the growing use of B&Bs and nightly-let accommodation, and the streamlining of funding structures to make it easier for Councils to spend their cash.
Areas across the UK can also choose to channel resources into services such as Housing First.
Housing First has been massively successful in Greater Manchester, and has helped house hundreds of our region’s rough sleepers since it was first piloted, being described as “life-changing” along the way.
More than £633 million of the funding will be allocated for the Homelessness Prevention Grant – which is a £192 million increase from this year – while £185.6 million will go to the Rough Sleeping Prevention and Recovery Grant, more than £37 million to the Rough Sleeping Accommodation Programme, and £5 million will be for the Emergency Accommodation Reduction Pilots.
This new £1 billion funding boost comes after it was announced back in September that Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions will be abolished in England next year as part of the landmark Renters’ Rights Bill.
It will also look to support the Government’s ambition to deliver the biggest increase in social and affordable housing in a generation – with an extra £500 million ploughed into the Affordable Homes Programme to build tens of thousands of affordable homes across the country.
Danny Jones -
21st April 2023 
