Sexual assault, exposure and theft among crimes on Shropshire buses

New figures revealed today show that West Mercia Police received 47 calls over incidents on public buses in the county between 2011 and the end of the financial year in 2014.

Last year, there was a report of exposure on a bus in Ellesmere, an alleged sexual assault on a woman in the Shrewsbury area and a person was charged for committing an act outraging public decency on a bus in Telford.

The figures more than tripled from eight reports in 2012/13 to 25 in the following year.

A total of seven people were charged over incidents on buses, three were resolved, one was cautioned and 35 remain under investigation or have been filed.

Other crimes reported include multiple thefts, a breach of an anti-social behaviour order, intentional harassment, theft from a bus and persons on the vehicle, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and common assault.

There were three reports of sexual assault on a female over the past three years, in Telford, Shrewsbury and Market Drayton.

The figures were released after it was revealed by the Shropshire Star that a bus driver was robbed of his fare in an attack in Shropshire.

Police have appealed for witnesses to the attack, which happened on a bus at Bembridge, near Brookside, Telford, between 3.30pm and 3.45pm last Thursday.

A man went onto the bus and attempted to pay using counterfeit money. When he was challenged by the driver, he reached through the gap in the plastic security glass and grabbed the driver's hand before grabbing a handful of £1 coins.

Police said the man ran away on foot and would have been seen by a number of people in the area.

The man, who is described as 5ft 7ins tall of slim build with dark brown hair and a long fringe, left the bus and ran off towards Brookside. He was wearing a dark top and dark trousers.

There has been increasing concern nationally about attacks on bus drivers.

CCTV footage was released earlier this month of the moment a bus driver was stabbed in the eye with a Stanley knife in Penge, South London.

In the video from the Metropolitan Police, the 41-year-old driver is waiting for the traffic lights to change when the suspect suddenly walks up and strikes him through the open window of the bus.

Moments before the attack, the suspect and child had stepped in front of the bus while crossing the road, causing the driver to slam on his brakes to avoid hitting them.

The attacj happened 5pm on 30 June last year on Penge High Street. The driver suffered a puncture wound to the eye but luckily there was no permanent damage to his sight.