Another one for the file: "Belfast woman cleared of battering elderly mum in row over table salt"

Escaping from her violent son

The mother in the street in her underwear shouting.

I think it's open and shut which I guess is why the police sent it to court. Total failure of the judge to protect an elderly female victim of DA. I hope it's appealed.

Dementia?!
The mother sounds to have a better hold on reality than her son from the description of the incident in that article

What from the report makes it sound like the mother had dementia

There doesn't seem to be proof that the son/daughter inflicted the injuries. The mother does sound like she is suffering from dementia.

Except the officer isn't clarifying who they're discussing. They say "He's asked me to call him she" and the Mum responded "yes"

Pp are right - it was an unnecessary interjection about pronouns - nothing to do with confirming who the man was.

If the police were trying to clarify that they were talking about the same person they would ask who the mother was referring to not say he asked to be called she.

I hope his mum's okay. She seems to have distanced herself from him. I hope she's got support.

Exactly. It's relevant at that time.officer needs to be be clear who they are talking about and how.

How the hell is it appropriate to interrupt a victim to bring up pronouns

Perhaps to clarify they were talking about the same person?

And the incident itself wasn't caught on camera, just the victim's description of it.

If a victim doesn't cooperate with a prosecution, there's no other witness to the incident, and no strong proof that injuries occurred at the hands of the alleged assailant (eg bruising from a fall - did they trip or were they pushed?) then it's not so surprising that the case failed.

However it's good that the police pursued it without the victim's cooperation. That didn't used to be the case in domestic violence incidents.

I was about to quote that. Absolutely shocking. And extraordinary that there was no conviction. It was caught on the police body camera, on top of the neighbour reporting it.

How the hell is it appropriate to interrupt a victim to bring up pronouns

"she was acquitted of both charges due to issues around the evidence."

"The court heard no statement of complaint was made by the defendant’s mother, but the prosecution proceeded with the body-worn footage obtained by police who attended the incident."

The call to police was made by a concerned neighbour, not the victim. The victim didn't make a complaint about the incident, possibly didn't even make a statement other than what was recorded on bodycam. And didn't attend court to give evidence - in fact wrote a letter in support of the defendant.

Interesting use of pronouns though: article uses "she" (in line with press/court usage rules) but uses "he" when quoting the mother's comments from the bodycam recording.

A man then.