I've lived in London my whole life, but for the first time, I am genuinely frightened - Emma Woolf

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A spate of brutal attacks has shattered the confidence of even the most streetwise British women, writes the author and political commentator

“We don’t feel safe anymore”. This is the message I’m hearing from female friends of all ages across the UK. We don’t feel safe alone, we don’t feel safe out with our young children, we don’t feel safe in quiet parks, waiting at deserted bus stops, on empty tube carriages, walking along dark streets, and never late at night.

In the past few weeks, something has changed. Even confident, street-smart women like me are watching the news, reports of Afghan migrant rapists, Eritrean rapists, and wondering why on earth these men are in this country.

From our teens, every woman is aware of the danger. We’re taught to be vigilant, to stay with others, not to put ourselves at risk. Unfortunately, a tiny minority of men pose a threat to us, because they’re bigger, because they’re stronger, and because rape and violence are part of the world we live in.

Now, the old rules do not apply. The past few weeks have seen a spate of random and brutal sexual attacks, and for girls and women it feels like we have reached a tipping point.

I’m talking about women, but it’s men too. The rape of an elderly male pensioner outside a church in North London by an Eritrean man, reported last week, was beyond words. Any rape victim faces a huge challenge in recovering from what has happened, but how can an elderly person even begin to heal from that physical and emotional trauma? A male friend pointed out, “men feel extra shame, as well, being raped”.

For the first time I began to think about my young son as a target – if an old man is a target, why not a 6-year-old boy? The brutality of these attacks is so shocking that it’s hard to make sense of any of it. How can we begin to understand the motives behind such depraved, animal behaviour?

For the first time, I am genuinely frightened. I can’t believe I’m saying those words. I’ve lived in London, what some call “the crime capital of the UK” all my life. I’ve never been mugged or followed or assaulted, I’ve never been harassed or spiked. I’m probably too relaxed about my personal safety - I cycle all over town, often at 4am on my way to a TV or radio studio, or late at night.

People tell me it’s unsafe, but cycling to me feels safer than public transport, because when you’re on the move you’re a less obvious target. I feel more anxious in a cab with a random driver, an unknown man who could lock the doors and drive me anywhere, than I do zooming through London on two wheels.

The detailed media coverage of these appalling rapes was traumatic enough. But then came the booklet. Last week the Home Office published a nine-page online booklet for asylum seekers arriving in the UK, setting out how they are expected to behave and what they cannot do, with guidance on how our laws and customs may differ from their home countries.

The booklet explains that rape, sexual harassment and domestic abuse are illegal in this country, that men may not control women or prevent them seeing family and friends, that they should not have sexual intercourse with children, and that female genital mutilation is not permitted.

Reform were the first to react, with Zia Yusuf summing up the national mood: "The Government has just published a handy guide for illegal migrants on how not to be a rapist, not to be a paedophile, how not to beat women and how to leave babies alone.”

But it wasn’t just Reform - across the political perspective, this booklet was seen as proof that the threat from foreign men arriving in our country is not imaginary, it’s not xenophobic or right-wing. This booklet was not published by an anti-immigration group but the Home Office, and it’s an admission of the dangers we all face.

And if this guidance is being issued to the asylum seekers who actually apply – what about the thousands of men who are arriving illegally, undocumented? Who believes that any of these men would take the time to seek out this guidance? Is their written English good enough to understand it, and would it somehow miraculously change their attitudes and behaviour?

Of course not. So many of us have been speaking out about the threats to women (and now men and children too) from uncontrolled mass immigration, and now we see it in black and white, in the Government’s own words.

This is a tipping point, for our safety, our peace of mind and our way of life. And many of us are scared as hell.