This was not the first time Kate experienced harassment while running, but it was the first time she feared for her life.<\/p>\n
“I actually thought, ‘You know what, I think today is going to be the day and I might not make it home to my family today,'” she said.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/41eccb2f628ba166fb21b4b6ecb9551b.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Kate shared her story online and was met with a wave of support. (ABC News: Michael Lloyd)<\/p>\n
It was only when Kate (whose surname the ABC has chosen to withhold) ran towards some nearby shops that the man got spooked and drove away.<\/p>\n
“I’ve had some experiences before with reporting these types of things where my concerns haven’t been taken seriously,” she said.<\/p>\n
“So I was hesitant to report this again.”<\/p>\n
Kate had previously reported a similar incident to police but was told the man involved was “harmless”.<\/p>\n
This time she called Policelink and was informed she needed to go into a station to file a report.<\/p>\n
“It took a little while until I found a station and an officer who actually took my details,” Kate said.<\/p>\n
“It took three police officers and three separate phone calls to have that happen.”<\/p>\n
Experience all too common<\/p>\n
Kate’s frightening experience generated a wave of responses to 612 ABC Brisbane Breakfast, including one from Jan, who said Kate’s story sounded very familiar.<\/p>\n
The Redcliffe resident said she had led an active lifestyle for more than 60 years and refused to exercise alone when it was dark.<\/p>\n
“When I was doing team sports we used to all train as a pack \u2026 and that’s the only way you could do it,” Jan said.<\/p>\n
“And that’s been going on for 60 years.”<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/e7a6e116f602a8bb2b07493b3199816b.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Katie Dall says female runners should avoid suburbs such as South Bank and Kangaroo Point after dark. (Supplied: Katie Dall)<\/p>\n
Newstead run club founder Katie Dall said harassment of female runners in Brisbane happened “frequently” and that the city was not safe for women wanting to exercise by themselves.<\/p>\n
She started the Club KT Walk Run Club in 2021 to help people connect during the COVID-19 pandemic and said it had since become vital.<\/p>\n
“I don’t feel like there’s any really safe place now \u2026 even during the day you have to be careful,” Ms Dall said.<\/p>\n
“I’ve had my own experiences where a car has slowed down while I’ve been out running on my own near New Farm Park and you literally have to be like thinking about, ‘OK, what do I do next?'”<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/b84ff054d1b7e5824da1fcd26a78057c.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Katie Dall says some women carry alarms while out running in Brisbane. (Supplied: Katie Dall)<\/p>\n
She said the police should do more to raise awareness and prevent harassment.<\/p>\n
“I don’t like to say to women, ‘Don’t run there’, because why should we have to change our behaviour?” Ms Dall said.<\/p>\n
Experts agree the onus should not be on female runners.<\/p>\n
University of Melbourne associate professor of criminology Bianca Fileborn said women should not be responsible for ensuring their safety or changing their behaviour when exercising.<\/p>\n
“The emphasis needs to be on the people or the men who are engaging in this behaviour in the first place,” she said.<\/p>\n
Dr Fileborn said telling people where they were going or bringing a phone could help women feel safer, but there was little evidence this actually increased safety.<\/p>\n
“It comes back to challenging and undoing the structural and the cultural and social drivers of gender-based violence,” she said.<\/p>\n
A constant state of fear<\/p>\n
Even before Monday’s incident, Kate said she was constantly “looking over her shoulder” when exercising at any time of day.<\/p>\n
“I wear my hair in a bun so my ponytail can’t be pulled. I wear a tight shirt so my shirt can’t be grabbed,” she said.<\/p>\n
“I shouldn’t be living my life like that.”<\/p>\n
Kate shared her story online and was met with a wave of support.<\/p>\n
“The harrowing thing is that nearly every woman who has commented on the post or reached out to me personally, this has happened to,” she said.<\/p>\n
“This behaviour shouldn’t be normalised.”<\/p>\n
\u00a0Police told 612 ABC Brisbane Breakfast they were aware of the incident.<\/p>\n
“Everyone has the right to feel safe,” a spokesperson said in a statement.<\/p>\n
“The QPS is focused on ensuring community safety and takes reports of suspicious behaviour seriously.”<\/p>\n
A Redland City Council spokesperson said the council recognised the importance of maintaining safe public spaces and regularly collaborated with the police to raise awareness of community and personal safety.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At about 5:30am on Monday Kate was hitting the pavement on her regular morning run around the Redlands.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":784405,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[370677,43,44,370676,32055,41,39,42,40,77253,370679,370678],"class_list":["post-784404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-female-runners-sexual-harassment","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-policelink","tag-sexual-harassment","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-womens-safety","tag-womens-exercise-brisbane","tag-womens-running-groups-brisbane"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=784404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/784405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=784404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=784404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=784404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}