This story contains detailed descriptions of offensive sexual acts.

It started with a phone call.

Late at night in October 2022, my cell phone lit up with a withheld number.

There was a man on the other end of the call, a voice – and then he started making noises.

No doubt this stranger was masturbating on the phone.

The sound got louder and louder. My heart raced and struggled to believe what I had just heard. I hung up. But the phone rang again and again.

At this point I switched to journalist mode.

I knew this man needed to be reported and I was sure the police could trace the call – but they would need proof.

So I ran upstairs and grabbed my work phone. On his third or fourth attempt to call back, I picked up the call and put it on speakerphone and recorded him.

For five minutes I listened and recorded as he masturbated, called my first name, used vulgar language to say “suck my (penis)” and made other obscene and indecent comments about my genitalia. I wondered when he would have had enough and when I would have enough proof.

I was concerned about my personal safety: if this man knew my first name and number, did he know me? Had I met him? Was it someone I interviewed? Did he know where I lived?

He had an accent I didn’t recognize, maybe Midlands. I assumed it was somehow linked to the fact that I was an on-air BBC journalist but I wasn’t sure. I called 999 to report the crime.

The following day I went to my local police station to make a statement and was asked to upload the recorded footage to the Metropolitan Police system.

I was naively hopeful that they could use it to quickly track down the caller and arrest the man.

I have worked on too many stories of violence against women – including the disappearance and subsequent rape and murder of Sarah Everard.

The police had failed to investigate Wayne Couzens for at least three indecent exposure offenses before he murdered Sarah Everard. Experts say these crimes could have been a “red flag” that someone could go on to commit more serious crimes.

So I had two concerns: my own safety and making sure this man couldn’t go on to commit more serious sex crimes.

The whole ordeal would prove to be an eye-opening experience of why so many sexual crimes go unreported or unpunished, how slow the police and justice system are and how despite the warm words, women still fail, due to police incompetence.

The police actually dropped my case and only reopened after a victim’s right to review was exercised.

He was eventually charged – but he wouldn’t have been if I hadn’t taken control of it.

To make matters worse, three days ago I found out that he had actually been convicted in 2015 of making 15,000 calls to random numbers – raising even more questions about why it took so long to prosecute him now.

The Met Police admitted their handling of the case “clearly failed”.

Lancashire Police said their initial handling “did not meet the standard expected”.

This is how it developed.