Traitors winner Meryl Williams forced to hide in train toilet after abusive teens mock her dwarfism
'The Traitors' winner Meryl Williams was forced to hide in a train toilet after four teenagers verbally abused her over her dwarfism, and the star admitted she used to drive to London to avoid such incidents but only just gathered enough confidence to take the train.
'The Traitors' winner Meryl Williams was forced to hide in a train toilet after four teenagers verbally abused her.
The 28-year-old star, who was born with dwarfism - a condition of people marked by unusually small size or short stature - recorded a video of herself taking refuge in the London-bound train's loo following the unsavoury incident, in which she was mocked over her condition.
Speaking in a TikTok video, which she captioned "The side you don't see #dwarfismawareness", Meryl said: "Living with this condition is something that you can’t hide.
"People see you straight away; they notice you straight away, you’re just an easy target.
"I got on the train, they sat opposite me because I’m sitting on the seats with tables, and so far they’ve said that I need a stepladder to get on the train, I’m a midget, they’ve watched dwarf throwing, they’ve taken videos of me, they’ve taken photos of me, they said I’ve got sausage fingers, and they’ve laughed at me.
"This is all in the space of 10 minutes. I’m on my own right now."
Meryl - who was a joint-winner of the first series of the BBC One show - also wondered why nobody else around her had stepped in to help.
She said: "Everyone around me has witnessed this, heard this, and no one’s said anything. I don’t know what to do.
"So I thought, I know they’re getting off at Durham, and they got on at Newcastle, so if you know these people, let me know, four teenagers … so I’m gonna wait in the toilet until the Durham stop, then I’ll go out."
Meryl told how she used to drive to London rather than take public transport for fear of being abused, but she recently had a confidence boost and opted to take the train.
She added: "I felt safe in my car, I was protected. Nobody could see me, no one could laugh at me or make fun of me.
"I've recently just got my confidence to start going on the train."
