Police urge joggers to 'stay vigilant' after teen allegedly attacks Canberra woman on running trail

Australia Broadcast Center

29-05-2025

Police are urging runners to "stay vigilant" on Canberra's trails after a teenager allegedly attacked a woman who was out jogging.
The 59-year-old woman was running down Oak Hill on the Centenary Trail in Bonner about 10:15am on Monday when a 15-year-old boy allegedly grabbed her from behind and violently assaulted her.
The incident comes after a female runner was allegedly grabbed from behind by a man, but managed to break free, while out on a trail at Tuggeranong Hill in March.
The alleged assaults have left many asking what needs to be done to keep women safe outdoors in Canberra, while more women are joining running groups.
ACT Policing Detective Acting Superintendent Anthony Brown said during the incident at Oak Hill, the teenager allegedly choked the woman, causing her to pass out for a short period of time.
He said when the woman regained consciousness and tried to get away, he then struck her in the head causing the woman to fall to the ground.
"She was attacked from behind, to start with, by a male not known to her, he grabbed her around the neck and continued to assault her," Detective Acting Superintendent Brown said.
Detective Acting Superintendent Brown said that after the boy left, the woman ran until she encountered another woman who called emergency services.
She was taken to Canberra Hospital and treated for minor injuries, and police arrested a boy a short time later.
"This is a horrible incident, it's very traumatic for the person involved and something we take very seriously," Detective Acting Superintendent Brown said.
"It is a very isolated incident — we don't get too many incidents such as these, and Canberra is very safe — most of the time our cities and trails and things are very safe.
"We do remind people that they do need to stay vigilant, and our advice is to simply just keep your phone with you if you can.
"The phone was stolen in this case, but it is still the best advice that we can give at the moment. It is a great tool if you need to reach out to someone."
The boy was charged with an act of indecency without consent, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, choke a person and render insensible, and robbery.
He faced the ACT Childrens Court on Wednesday and was remanded in custody.
The latest alleged assault has sparked concerns for women's safety while exercising outdoors, with many people taking to social media and ABC Radio Canberra talkback to express their dismay.
Mellita Bingley, who manages the Stromlo Running Festival with her husband Steve, maintains ACT trails are generally safe but "it's incredibly worrying" that female runners feel the need to exercise caution due to the assaults.
"We do need to consider – and it's a shame that we have to – we do have to consider running how and when and with who," she said.
"As women, we have to consider time of day, how remote we could be – things like: Do we have mobile coverage where we're running?
"We have to consider checking in when we leave and checking back when we get home."
Trail runner and exercise physiologist Kirra Rankin said news of the alleged assaults had discouraged some women from running outdoors.
"It is pretty disheartening," she said.
"It definitely doesn't make me not want to go on the trails.
"I know a lot of women do feel unsafe going on the trails, which I think is why talking about this topic is important because we want to try and get everyone outdoors and active rather than feeling like trapped in their homes."
Ms Rankin said more women were now running in groups.
Eilish Roland and Georgie Chambers jog around Lake Burley Griffin as part of a running club.
"It's a central spot, it's well-lit; there's lots of other runners around so it feels quite safe when there's lots of people around," Ms Roland said.
"Canberra has ... lots of running groups to be a part of and everyone looks out for each other."
Ms Chambers said she avoided "dark places" while out running, and thought Canberra could do better when it came to lighting.
"A lot of our areas have lots of really nice parks and ovals and paths, but generally, most of them are in the dark," she said.
She said felt she needed to be "hyper alert" when not running in a group.
"Whether I'm running, or even walking from my car, I think places like Haig Park and even where I live in the suburbs don't feel particularly safe," she said.
"It does really impact whether I go out at night, whether I go straight home after work, whether I have to get other friends, specifically male friends, to walk back to my car.
"It's really disappointing because I think Canberra is a really great place to live."
The men in the running group say they're learning from their fellow female runners.
"It allows us to connect with more female counterparts of the running community and the walking community," Brad Harris said.
"That allows us to go, 'Okay, what's the understanding we need when we're out on trails that are darker and more unsafe?'.
"So we get to connect here and kind of learn, 'How do we be better in our community?'
Runner Phillip Siomos said it was "disheartening know that [women] can't experience the same things that men do with such freedom".
"The information that we get about what happens and the experiences that women experience allows us to change our habits, and change things that we do," he said.
"It might be something as small as acknowledging that women feel unsafe when they see a man running towards them — and we can change our habits to cross the road or deviate our paths, which is the most minor thing that we can do to make a woman feel so much safer in their environment."
"The baseline is learning respect — [it's] pushing people to be part of the conversation more," Mr Harris added.
It's something that schools like Radford College are working to teach the next generation of young men.
Radford College principal Christopher Bradbury said the school's character education program, which teaches students about respect, was "highly effective".
"It's underpinned by the value of treating others with respect and dignity," he said.
"We want our students to not only behave and act in an acceptable manner, but we also want them to have the courage and the skills to be able to model and call out inappropriate behaviour.
"I think that's one of the greatest challenges for adults, let alone young people, in terms of having that sense of confidence and courage to stand up for what is right and to intervene."
While the material "can be confronting", Mr Bradbury said it enabled students to grow into "the best people they can become".
For now, Ms Bingley said Canberra's runners would continue to stand in solidarity and support each other.
"If we were to take anything away from it, it's to show that this trail running community is strong and that we are powerful and that we are resilient and that we won't stand for violence," she said.