Alert: problems after Viana

[Pierre Julian]

After Viana there is the Capilla NS de Las Cuevas. A young woman from our group who was walking alone in the afternoon around 2pm encountered a man near the chapel who behaved in suspicious way. When she ran back along the Camino he chased her until she found other pilgrims who she walked with after that. The man ran away but was later seen by other pilgrims acting suspiciously accompanied by a companion. There is a travellers camp site near by where these men may have come from.
WARNING do not walk alone on this section. Is there a way of allerting pilgrims prior to this section?

 

[Theatregal]

After Viana there is the Capilla NS de Las Cuevas. A young woman from our group who was walking alone in the afternoon around 2pm encountered a man near the chapel who behaved in suspicious way. When she ran back along the Camino he chased her until she found other pilgrims who she walked with after that. The man ran away but was later seen by other pilgrims acting suspiciously accompanied by a companion. There is a travellers camp site near by where these men may have come from.
WARNING do not walk alone on this section. Is there a way of allerting pilgrims prior to this section?

Was this reported to the police?

 

[mspath]

Report it to the hospitalero where you are tonight and ask their help in reporting it to the police. During recent years that stretch of 'garden paths' leaving Viana have been the setting for other unfortunate occurences involving pilgrims and flashers, etc.

 

[annelise]

Just checked my notes, and can see I took a little sit-down rest there at the Capilla, benches being around (benches generally a welcome sight - at least for me).

I also noted in my diary (what I intended as a funny aside in my notes), that pilgrims (mostly women) would regularly take a short turn behind the Capilla and unobtrusively come back.

Maybe a local observer has caught on to this 'traffic' behind the Capilla?

As a woman (who would obviously occasionally need to pee), I would suggest to not go behind buildings, sheds, ruins unless you know people are near you (or coming up soon).

annelise

 

[Kanga]

@Pierre Julian please, please encourage the victim to report it to the police and put pressure on all the local authorities to follow up. I cannot emphasise enough how important it is.

Obviously any sensible woman will take precautions but they should not have to. Warning women to modify their behaviour by walking in groups puts responsibility in the wrong place. Simarlarly providing a police presence to guard women is a temporary and unsatisfactory situation. Women should be able to pee in privacy, they should be safe to walk alone.

Until the perpetrators become the focus of attention nothing will be fixed.

 

[joanneking]

I'm starting my camino in 10 days, and am feeling apprehensive with all these reports of creepy lurking men and worse. I keep thinking of all the quiet walking times from my last camino,and now think that I'll feel afraid to be alone. Ugh.

 

[Griffin57]

I'm starting my camino in 10 days, and am feeling apprehensive with all these reports of creepy lurking men and worse. I keep thinking of all the quiet walking times from my last camino,and now think that I'll feel afraid to be alone. Ugh.

Hi Joanne, sorry that you are feeling this way. September is now acknowledged to be the busiest month on the camino it is unlikely that you have to be alone unless you really want to be.
Please take a look at my thread so that you can see the names of forum members travelling around the same time as you and make contact if you wish. There are always many, many more pilgrims on camino than on the forum. Hope this helps.

https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/2015-september-pilgrims.34666/#post-317576

Buen camino
Sarah

 

[joanneking]

Thanks, Sarah. I'm sure you are right, and I'll feel better once I'm there. I imagine there is a heightened awareness amongst pilgrims these days and a thought to keep an eye out for one another.

 

[movinmaggie]

@Pierre Julian please, please encourage the victim to report it to the police and put pressure on all the local authorities to follow up. I cannot emphasise enough how important it is.

Obviously any sensible woman will take precautions but they should not have to. Warning women to modify their behaviour by walking in groups puts responsibility in the wrong place. Simarlarly providing a police presence to guard women is a temporary and unsatisfactory situation. Women should be able to pee in privacy, they should be safe to walk alone.

Until the perpetrators become the focus of attention nothing will be fixed.

Kanga is there one particular number a pilgrim can call, i.e. Emergency 112, or a number for local police?

 

[mspath]

Maggie,
Throughout Europe 112 will get you a multi-lingual switchboard operator who will relay your call to the local authorities. As you know I live in France and have called 112 several times for help either seeing unassisted accidents on French roads or while walking the camino in Spain. Local police and/or ambulance services arrived within minutes.

Do also consider the new Alert Cops app which Ivar mentioned


Margaret Meredith

 

[Kanga]

There is also the new app posted by Ivar for alerting the police. I haven't yet had time to look at it properly but here is the thread

https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/alert-cops.36208/#post-339062

 

[Patch]

When I walked through this afternoon their was a group of young men, supervised of course, with obvious problems. Are we sure it's not something like this. True there were was a group of travellers but they were happy playing football.

 

[Kanga]

@Patch you may be right but let's not speculate. We don't want to doubt either the OP or misconstrue the actions of disabled people who live in the area, or exhibit prejudice against travellers.

Perhaps we might just leave the thread for now. The warning is there for all to see.