Flattery should get her nowhere.

Louise Woodward-Styles.

Since some women are still blissfully unaware of the problem in our midst I’m going to be as short and clear as possible.

A number of women have complained about the sexual advances of a woman named Louise Woodward-Styles (@LouiseWSSalford) and some of them are very serious complaints indeed.

Women have tried previously to raise the alarm about her sexually predatory behaviour, though this is difficult without exposing the names or details of experiences of victims who don’t want their details exposed. Her victims are frightened and they feel a degree of shame about what happened to them. Other women have to be their voice.

I am aware of how Woodward-Styles will try to spin this, reframing me as jealous or vindictive. She will do what she needs to do to maintain her platform and image. I don’t mind. I am here to warn women about interacting with her on a one to one basis.

Here is my experience.

Last year I was briefly having a bit of a hard time at the hands of a group of former friends. The details are unimportant and long in the past. Louise Woodward Styles who had sniffed a vulnerability in me from posts I had shared and so she entered my DMs by Facebook messenger.

I had wrestled with my feelings about Louise’s excessive selfie posts on Facebook, TikTok and Twitter. Was this an excessively vain narcissist or was I being unfair when she was just a woman enjoying her newly-thin body and being proud of it and if so shouldn’t she be encouraged? I plumped for the second. I did the “go on lass” type of comment on her posts. It felt “unfeminist” to feel she was attention-seeking.

When she slid into my DMs with messages suggesting we were “the same” and had both been on the end of “mean girl” behaviour, were both northern, working class victims of male violence etc etc, I took it at face value. She became familiar very quickly when I confided in her how I had been treated recently.

I began to have some niggles very early on. There was a swift insistence there that we were now “bonded” and owed each other an unending and unquestionable loyalty. Something felt off. I have been the victim of same-sex abuse in the distant past and faint alarm bells began tinkling.

Meanwhile she confided in me about another of her “friends” and asked for my advice about helping this friend out of an abusive relationship. I am a survivor of, and campaigner on the issue of, domestic abuse. This was an easy way to draw me into further conversation.

She confided many details about her extreme love of this woman, with photos of the two of them and something felt really strange. I suspected she had a massive crush on the woman. However I am aware that Louise is married , so I didn’t say anything. Meanwhile I was under the impression the woman in question was in a dangerous situation with a man which was potentially life-threatening.

As I soon learned the woman in question was not being abused and the man is not abusive as far as I know. This was a fantasy Louise built in order to fulfil her own needs. I won’t go into further detail about this woman, but when I finally met her she thought I was a bit insane as I was speaking to her as though she was a victim of a man abusing her. She had no idea what I was talking about. I will never forgive Louise for this. It was an obscene way to buy my trust.

I met Louise in person for the first time at Lesbian Strength in Leeds 2024. I had arranged to meet up with another woman there, not her. Louise came up to me as though we were great friends and was extremely over-familiar and physically close. I was uncomfortable but polite as I am with most people. I went to sit with the woman I knew far better and felt really happy. Every time she left my side however, Louise slid into her place. She took a selfie with me and I remember asking “Is there a filter on that camera?” and she assured me there wasn’t. This was a lie. The resulting photo erases virtually all of my middle-aged features and wrinkles and I look really, really odd. (See below the photo she took and the one I took a few moments later.)

Weird things began to happen fast. Louise tried to insert herself into my friendship with two other women and there was an insistence that she could not be left out of things as I was her close friend now. I barely knew her! I had met her once. She was guilt-tripping me into a relationship she had no right to insist upon. I cut her off. I did it sharply. My now partner had spotted what was happening when I confided in her the messages and at that point I stepped away from Louise.

At the same time a woman confided that she had been abused by Louise and as months have gone by a number of other women have shared their confidences in groups and between individuals and it is a very grim picture indeed.

I now think I was being used by her as a “cover”. I gave Louise legitimacy because I have a large platform and whilst people don’t always like me, I am respected for having principles. I don’t know if Louise would have made her moves on me but thankfully she did not get the chance.

The common tactic is the same from the women’s accounts I have heard, though I have not heard from all of the women who accuse her of abuse.

Woodward-Styles seems to use the common approach of sliding into the DMs of women who are lonely, or vulnerable for some reason. She then “bonds’’ the women. I was not vulnerable to this and spotted it, but women desperately needing friendship, support or allies have been. Louise quickly makes the women feel they “owe” her. She tried this with me.

Once they “owe” her she may orchestrate a meeting. She moves fast, be warned. Some women were subject to sexual advance on the first meeting, some feeling disorientated but nevertheless as though they must have invited it. This is incredibly cruel, making victims feel culpable for her aggressive advances. Some of the details I heard were utterly disgusting. She has secured messages and photos from some of the women which are then used against them to suggest they were complicit and this has been severely traumatising with women terrified of further details being released.

Sometimes Louise’s advances remain online only but this is nevertheless abusive and leaves those women hurt and upset. She has sent unsolicited, suggestive images to women. She has sent messages of a pornographic nature which left women disturbed and repulsed. This is not “flirting” as it has been reframed. It is far more serious.

When Louise felt that she was exposed for some of this behaviour she left Twitter and spread a story of her regret and how she was seeking help. Now she’s back and those of us who have been targeted can see the patterns all too clearly.

What has never been released are the details of the serious sexual nature of some of the assaults, because her victims are carrying shame. Some of the details I heard - directly from victims - are truly sickening. The shame should be all on the predator. These women were not complicit and Louise revealing messages from them suggesting they were is further to the abuse already perpetrated.

Those women have no obligation to report to the police and no one has the right to demand they do.

Meanwhile it is important to watch what is happening. Louise has returned to Twitter to continue where she left off. Her victims are horrified, assuming she would desist when exposed.

Louise undoubtedly has a horrific past where she herself was abused by men and that is truly awful; she probably carries much unprocessed trauma. It does not however excuse anyone from abusing other women.

The technique Louise is using this weekend is flattery and love bombing of “celebrity” movement figures. She is producing images of them as “activism” and “celebrating” their achievements. The result is that she is being lauded and thanked by them and others.

Why is this problematic? Because she is then given a cover of respectability; she is given the tacit endorsement of the movement. If these well-respected figures are close to her then the implied message is that she MUST be trustworthy. This builds her platform, which is important to her because it gives her access to more women unaware of her previous misdeeds. I have heard this morning that at least one woman was approached yesterday on the back of this new venture and its apparent success. She appears to have successfully relaunched.

If you are a movement figure being targeted with flattery, portraits produced with AI assistance for example, take a moment to consider whether I would be willing to say any of this unless I had the testimony of women to back up what I am saying. I cannot write the full details because they are simply too awful.

This is not ‘accidental cheating on my wife” or “ill-advised flirting because feeling a bit horny” as the proffered excuses have been, it is far more serious and includes women who report they said “no” to sexual contact and whose “no” was ignored. There is one detail in particular that I will never forget but cannot share.

If you distribute these pictures, or thank her for them, then victims are watching you and feeling disappointment, even despair, that their voices and brave warnings have not been heard or heeded. You also allow Louise to feel she has ridden out from the shadows of their accusations and is “cleared” to continue as before.

If you are a woman who is approached by Louise beware. If you are a straight woman do not assume you are safe, you aren’t necessarily. Her advances have not been limited to Lesbian or Bisexual women. If Louise attempts to build a friendship with you really quickly at a time you are not feeling at the top of your game beware. if Louise suggests you owe her loyalty, you don’t. You owe her nothing. If you are asked to meet up beware. If you are asked to accompany her to the toilet, don’t do this. If you are asked to her home, don’t assume you are safe because her wife is there. If you are much younger than her don’t assume she will see that as a natural boundary.

She is extremely skilled at hiding behind her past as a victim of male violence, and very good at eliciting sympathy when put on the spot for her unacceptable behaviour. Expect that this will happen in the coming days. It is worth noting that many of the women who shared their stories about her had no previous connection with each other, yet all their stories follow the same pattern. The group of women now exposing her as a predator did not previously know each other but have found comfort in connecting as an informal support group.

I have recently had my own boundaries crossed again by Louise, who despite blocking me on Twitter, took a picture from my Timeline of a sexual nature and used it to make suggestions about her own sexual prowess. I asked her to remove it and she did not. This is not normal behaviour. It was a really disturbing thing to do. I have no doubt she is watching me as I have been told too much by women who have trusted me.

I assume I will be the target of much narc rage this weekend. I assume I will be kicked up and down the whatsapp groups. I imagine I will be the subject of a huge amount of DARVO where I am the aggressor targeting a survivor. Bring it on. I’ll live. I am doing my best to stand up for women who have shared their confidences, the lesbian groups who have removed Louise, and the other groups who decided they could not allow Louise to remain a member as that would give her legitimacy from membership in order to approach more women.

Beware. Look out for yourself and your female friends and heed other women’s warnings