Balcony leap won’t put me off returning, says woman

A BRITISH woman who jumped from her hotel balcony in India in fear of a sexual assault spoke of her ordeal yesterday, but said it would not stop her returning to the country.

Jessica Davies, 31, had been staying at the Hotel Agra Mahal in the northern city of Agra, near the Taj Mahal, when the incident happened.

She said the hotel manager came to her room in the middle of the night holding two bottles of oil and offering her a massage. She pushed him out and bolted the door, but he is alleged to have insisted on being let in.

“I realised he wasn’t going to go away,” she said. “I started screaming for people to help.”

Ms Davies, from London, said she realised her balcony door was not secure and that the manager, who was joined by a second man, could enter her room that way.

“Adding to her panic, there was a power cut, plunging the room into darkness, and her phone was not working.

“I knew there was no other choice at that point, apart from to jump from the balcony, which I did,” said Ms Davies, who injured her leg as she leapt from the second to the ground floor.

She said she ran into the road asking for help but that no-one understood her. She finally was given a lift to a police station by a rickshaw driver and reported the matter.

Two men have been charged over the incident and have appeared in court.

Ms Davies, who returned to the UK on Friday, said she was speaking out to warn women about travelling in India on their own. She said she would return to India, but would travel with others.

The episode came days after a Swiss woman was gang-raped while on a camping trip.

Three months ago, a woman died after being gang raped on a New Delhi bus, a crime that sparked outrage across India.