Sisters Describe 'Complete Violation' After Being Filmed Under Their Dresses on Manchester Night Out

Two sisters have spoken publicly about the distress of being secretly filmed from behind during a night out in Manchester, describing the experience as a "complete violation" and vowing that the men allegedly responsible had targeted the wrong women.

Georgia Scholes, 25, and her sister Alex Scholes, 22, had just left a restaurant in the Spinningfields area of the city when they became aware that two men were following them unusually closely up a flight of stairs while appearing to film them.

Georgia, an actress who has appeared in the ITV crime drama The Bay, said her instincts told her something was wrong when she spotted one of the men holding his mobile phone at an odd angle. Moments later, she realised he was recording her.

She recounted how her "heart just sank" as the reality of what had happened became clear, describing the incident as an utter violation of her privacy and dignity.

Greater Manchester Police confirmed that two men, one in his 20s and another in his 30s, were arrested on suspicion of voyeurism following the alleged incident on Deansgate on 19 September. The force said both men had since been released on bail while enquiries continue.

According to Georgia, she confronted the men directly and asked them to delete the footage. She said the confrontation left her overwhelmed, and she broke down in tears as the shock set in.

She described the helplessness of knowing that someone had captured images beneath her dress and had walked away with them, leaving her with no control over what might happen to the material.

Georgia also recalled that one of the men began shouting while the other remained strangely close to her, and that one of them started to run off as the situation escalated.

She appealed to passers-by for assistance but said nobody intervened, a detail she found particularly disheartening given how public the location was.

Her sister Alex also repeatedly demanded that one of the men delete the recording. When he attempted to flee, she removed her heels and chased after him, determined not to let him escape.

It was only then that a door supervisor stepped in and stopped the second man. Both men were subsequently arrested, a development Georgia believes would not have happened without that intervention.

She said that without the bouncer's quick action, the men would likely have evaded consequences entirely, leaving her to live with the knowledge that the footage remained in circulation.

Reflecting on the evening, Georgia noted that she and her sister had spent time getting their hair and make-up done and had felt confident before the incident. That sense of wellbeing, she said, vanished in an instant.

The following morning brought what she described as an overwhelming sadness, compounded by a feeling that she had spent the night justifying herself rather than simply enjoying an evening out.

She also raised concerns about how she was treated when she reported the matter, saying the first question a female police officer asked was whether she was certain the man had been recording her. Georgia said that line of questioning plants a seed of doubt in a victim's mind.

Her central message is that instructing women to be hyper-vigilant on nights out — watching their surroundings and their drinks — is not a genuine solution. She characterised such advice as little more than a plaster over a much larger societal problem.

Alex echoed her sister's anger, saying the men had picked the wrong pair to target that night and that neither she nor Georgia would allow themselves to be belittled or intimidated.

She said the two of them were subjected to a stream of abuse during the confrontation but remained determined to defend themselves, stressing that no one should be able to violate another person in that manner and assume they will escape accountability.

Alex described the lingering emotional impact, saying the incident taints every positive feeling that came before it and leaves victims feeling diminished and disrespected.

She argued that offences of this kind are routinely minimalised and normalised, to the point where victims are almost expected to simply accept what has happened to them. In her view, the appropriate response should be to call out perversion and harassment rather than tolerate it.

The case highlights a broader concern about technology-facilitated voyeurism, often referred to as upskirting, which involves taking images beneath a person's clothing without consent. Such conduct has been a specific criminal offence in England and Wales since 2019, carrying the possibility of a prison sentence.

Campaigners have long argued that the prevalence of smartphones has made this form of abuse easier to commit and harder to detect, with footage sometimes shared online or used for financial gain. A previous BBC investigation found evidence of men covertly filming women at night and profiting from the resulting material.

For Georgia and Alex, the alleged incident has become a rallying point rather than something to be quietly endured. They have chosen to speak openly in the hope that it shifts the burden of responsibility away from women and onto those who commit such acts, and onto bystanders who might otherwise look the other way.