A solo birthday trip to Paris turned into a terrifying escape for an Australian traveller who believes she was targeted near the Eiffel Tower and followed across the city.<\/p>\n
Djanaya had travelled alone before and loved marking each birthday with a new destination. For her 29th, she had chosen Paris, hoping to celebrate in the \u201ccity of love\u201d.<\/p>\n
Instead, she returned home convinced she had narrowly avoided something far more sinister.<\/p>\n
\u201cI genuinely can\u2019t believe that I\u2019m actually still living. It can happen anywhere, it can happen to anybody,\u201d Djanaya told A Current Affair on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
As the sun set beneath the Eiffel Tower, Djanaya noticed a man smiling at her. <\/p>\n
He soon struck up a conversation, asking if she was alone, how long she was staying and where she was based, before inviting her to a party.<\/p>\n
Djanaya turned that down, but handed over her Instagram when he asked. <\/p>\n
The pair also took a photo together.<\/p>\n
Moments later, she noticed the man hand money to a street seller without buying anything, then point in her direction.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy heart just sank,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Wanting to get back to her accommodation, Djanaya started moving through nearby restaurants to make sure no one was behind her.<\/p>\n
But when she jumped on a train, the man reappeared with his friend, five other men and two women.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis friend came up and pointed to me and goes, yep, that\u2019s her she\u2019s here,\u201d Djanaya said.<\/p>\n
Panicking, she FaceTimed her friend Shon back in Australia.<\/p>\n
Shon told A Current Affair she could see the \u201csheer panic\u201d in Djanaya\u2019s face. <\/p>\n
\u201cI just didn\u2019t know what I was meant to do,\u201d Shon said.<\/p>\n
Shon urged her to get off at a busy station. Djanaya did, but the group got off too.<\/p>\n
It became a frantic effort to lose them, with Djanaya jumping on and off trains while Shon stayed on the phone. <\/p>\n
She spotted one of the men on the train locking eyes with her and repeatedly gesturing at each stop as if asking whether she was getting off.<\/p>\n
Then help arrived from an unexpected stranger. A man on the train spoke to her in Spanish, and with Shon helping to translate, they realised he was trying to help.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said he was a security guard. He said it\u2019s all safe,\u201d Shon recalled.<\/p>\n
Djanaya then described the moment he stepped in to protect her.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe then took his massive big security puffer jacket, he took it off, wrapped it around me and pulled me under his arm and he\u2019s like, stay close because they will grab you,\u201d Djanaya said.<\/p>\n
The off-duty guard stayed with her until she got into an Uber and made it back safely.<\/p>\n
The next day, Djanaya went to the Australian embassy for help before later returning home.<\/p>\n
Former UK detective Anthony Dunkerley told A Current Affair the approach Djanaya described matched a known grooming tactic used by traffickers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe lover boy sort of method there so generally what we will see in a human trafficking scenario is that someone often nice on the eye, very nice to the person, and it\u2019s sort of a grooming technique,\u201d Mr Dunkerley said.<\/p>\n
Djanaya shared her story a year later to warn other solo travellers. She still travels alone, but with a sharper sense of risk.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou hear of these stories happening but you never think it\u2019s going to happen to you,\u201d Shon said.<\/p>\n
For Djanaya, the reason for speaking out is simple.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I save one person, I\u2019m happy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A solo birthday trip to Paris turned into a terrifying escape for an Australian traveller who believes she…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[64274,139678,44065,77651,139691,139663,139685,139666,37420,139662,40465,139702,139689,39406,139688,139679,139700,139657,90452,37834,139676,139695,40504,139675,22,50913,139659,139686,21,139697,139673,139660,139671,139701,4870,6168,84097,139665,36585,139684,139690,139668,139658,139687,139705,139677,114922,43142,139694,52,139699,6325,139670,139703,36716,139664,379,139667,38649,139692,139693,43754,139704,2891,40829,139674,139680,62463,88036,139669,139682,117548,53288,36676,84107,51264,36541,139683,37640,139681,43345,37772,37068,41244,46328,47944,37038,73893,139672,139696,139661,2745,139698,41786],"class_list":["post-85081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-s-face","tag-a-busy-station","tag-a-conversation","tag-a-current-affair","tag-a-frantic-effort","tag-a-grooming-technique","tag-a-human-trafficking-scenario","tag-a-known-grooming-tactic","tag-a-man","tag-a-new-destination","tag-a-night","tag-a-party-djanaya","tag-a-photo-together-moments","tag-a-security-guard","tag-a-sharper-sense","tag-a-solo-birthday-trip","tag-a-street-seller","tag-a-terrifying-escape","tag-a-train","tag-a-year","tag-an-aussie-solo-traveller","tag-an-australian-traveller","tag-an-uber","tag-an-unexpected-stranger","tag-au","tag-aussie","tag-australia-shon","tag-australian-solo-traveller","tag-austrlia","tag-djanaya","tag-each-birthday","tag-each-stop","tag-eiffel-tower","tag-encounter","tag-eyes","tag-fear","tag-five-other-men","tag-her-29th","tag-her-accommodation","tag-her-direction","tag-her-dream-birthday-trip","tag-her-friend-shon","tag-her-harrowing-story","tag-her-instagram","tag-her-story","tag-her-but","tag-his-arm","tag-his-friend","tag-his-massive-big-security-puffer-jacket","tag-home","tag-home-former-uk-detective-anthony-dunkerley","tag-love","tag-method","tag-mr-dunkerley-said-djanaya","tag-my-heart","tag-nearby-restaurants","tag-newswire-news","tag-next-day","tag-no-one","tag-off-duty-guard","tag-off-then-help","tag-one-person","tag-other-solo-travellers","tag-paris","tag-risk","tag-shon","tag-shon-recalled-djanaya","tag-sort","tag-spanish","tag-terrifying-paris-ordeal","tag-the-sheer-panic","tag-the-approach","tag-the-australian-embassy","tag-the-city","tag-the-eiffel-tower","tag-the-eye","tag-the-group","tag-the-lover-boy","tag-the-man","tag-the-man-hand-money","tag-the-men","tag-the-moment","tag-the-pair","tag-the-person","tag-the-phone","tag-the-reason","tag-the-sun","tag-the-train","tag-these-stories","tag-too-it","tag-traffickers","tag-trains","tag-tuesday-as","tag-two-women"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}