Ariel Lyndsey hopes her encounter will motivate other survivors of sexual assault to stand up for themselves. “It’s not OK to touch women, or anybody for that matter, without consent,” she said.
A woman who says she was groped in a Las Vegas hotel is speaking out about the incident to Inside Edition.
Ariel Lyndsey and her friends were in the lobby of the Palazzo Hotel on their way to dinner when she says she felt a hand go up the back of her skirt.
“He walks by me and the second I passed him, I felt his hand go up the back of my skirt,” Lyndsey said.
Lyndsey confronted the man as her friend, Shannon Baker, recorded the encounter.
“I was in shock, but my fight or flight was like, ‘No, not OK.’ And I turned around and I grabbed his collar,” Lyndsey said.
“I feel like with so many people, it ends up being a ‘He said, she said’ type of situation. Video evidence doesn’t lie,” Baker said.
The women even waited for the suspected groper to come out of the bathroom. When Lyndsey tried to stop him from getting away, he bolted.
“This isn’t OK. Stop doing this,” Lyndsey said. “It’s not OK to touch women, or anybody for that matter, without consent.”
Hotel security took down Lyndsey’s statement, and Las Vegas police tracked down the suspect and arrested him for open and gross lewdness.
Ariel hopes her encounter will motivate other survivors of sexual assault to stand up for themselves.
