Is there a time limit to report someone to the police for purposely shoving you hard in the shoulder, and is that actually a crime ?

[LisaVanderpumpy]

It happned at a party 7 years ago now and the person that did it was also a party guest

he is some sort of police commissioner. Or high up in the police
and it worries me someone abusive is in such a position
but also guess he’s well protected

i mean is this even a crime
He fully put his hand hard onto my shoulder and shoved me hard
more like a hit than a shove

Ok, firstly, everyone needs to take note that this was 7 years ago. The time limit for common assault is 6 months from the date of the incident, though it can be up to two years later if the allegation is upgraded to assault. The criteria is if someone feels threatened by someone else, they don't need to physically hit someone. However, no police force is going to investigate someone being hit on the shoulder from 7 years ago, so with kindness op you are being advised to move on as there's nothing to be investigated.
The police aren't interested in 'building a picture' of what someone 'might' be capable of unless the incident is within time frame and the person has other cautions against them etc but that's not the case here. You're not even just a little bit out of time frame either. The police wouldn't do anything as the CPS would throw it out for being outside time frames and lack of evidence to do anything, regardless of a person's job, that's the legal time frames for this type of assault

But it would likely help OP, either to validate her experience or see that it was perhaps not as intentional as she thought.

If there is no evidence then OP can draw a line in it.

If there is, then she can decide what she does with it.

There are exceptions to the 6 month rule, however I agree that 7 years is too long and nothing would come of it.

But it’s obviously weighing heavy on OP and if she thinks it’s filmed then I’d at least try and watch it back.

For common assault which this is, it is 6 months from the date of the incident to charges being laid, i.e. either being charged or being summonsed. You don’t have 6 months to report it, those 6 months need to include the investigation reaching the point of charges.

For more serious assaults with significant injuries there are no time limits.

How will it validate it though? There’s no evidence, the fact that the recollection is so detailed is odd. And she’s decided she knows his intention anyway.

The exceptions appear to be:

Assaults on Emergency Workers: Under the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018, a common assault or battery committed against an emergency worker (police, fire, ambulance, etc.) is triable "either way". This means it can be heard in the Crown Court, bypassing the six-month summary time limit.
Offences Triable "Either Way": If the assault is not simply a standard "common assault" but falls under higher categories of assault (like Assault Occasioning Actual Bodily Harm - ABH), it is triable "either way" and has no statutory time limit for prosecution.
Delayed "Discovery" of Injury: In certain complex scenarios, if the injuries are initially deemed minor but later clearly defined as being more than transient or trifling (e.g., injuries revealing themselves to be serious after 6 months), legal arguments regarding the timing of the offense's completion may be raised.
The Crown Prosecution Service +4
Note: For standard common assault, if the offence is not prosecuted in the Magistrates' Court within six months, it cannot be pursued.

And has she been mulling this for 7 years?

She said she believes it was filmed.

So if it was, she can see that it was either an intentional, aggressive act or it was simply something that wasn’t intended to be as rough.

So she’ll either feel validated that she was right to feel upset about it or realise that she may have been a bit sensitive.

Hopefully either way she’ll get some closure.

Do you think a shove seven years ago warrants them potentially losing their job? The limitation of proceedings may be 6 months but an internal investigation which this would be doesn’t have that limit. You say you’re concerned that they could do something to someone else but you can’t have been that concerned as seven years have passed and you haven’t acted on your concerns. The ribbons could be anything from army service prior to the police or ribbons given when you’ve been in service for over 5 years like the coronation and platinum jubilee. Let it go.

So where is this footage? Does it still exist and, if so, can it be located and obtained? It hardly seems likely.

Did anyone else say anything at the time? If the shove was as bad as you're saying then other people would surely have noticed and been shocked.

What a weird question to bring up now after all these years

Sorry if I've missed the info, but was this person high up in the police at the time?
I'm wondering if you resent that they have done well in their career, after what they did to you, as you believe them to be a horrible person and so undeserving of the success. Is that why the incident is playing on your mind all these years later?

A lot of men are much stronger than they think & so what is just a ‘shove’ to them can actually equate to almost pushing someone over in reality..
.

She said the event they were at was filmed. I doubt every single movement of every single guest will have been captured.
How likely is that?

And how busy was the event? Was it a gallery function with not many people, a big concert? Surely if the camera crew were close enough for the push to have been filmed, someone would have flagged this up at the time?

I think you need help to stop fixating on this and extrapolating it into this jigsaw piece of some wider picture of abuse and corruption that’s going on in your head. If it had happened last week or even last year then maybe I’d say look into it, but a shove out of the way for a photo in a crowded place seven years ago?? This is not akin to dv/sa reported years down the line. This feels much more to do with what’s going on for you and what this represents, because it’s not about him or the shove really. If he had no status would it not matter? It almost feels like it’s got this weight because someone important who wears medals did it, and that somehow elevates it from a shove on a crowded tube. But that stranger could be someone important too. or it could be a ‘nobody’, would you feel less aggrieved?

Either it was a big deal and you’d have done something way back, or it’s not and you’re fixating on it now because something else is wrong in your life. If you can’t afford counselling, at least talk to a good friend or someone who cares about you before taking this to the police or investigating film footage. I think you need to unpack what’s really going on. And that’s not minimising or being an apologist. There’s a loss of perspective here that’s nothing to do with this random shove.

Oh yeah, you sound very balanced.

And no, I've never hit anyone with or without provocation. I may have trodden on someone's toe once in the crowd at a gig in 1997. Should that person report me now because I've had a few promotions and they're having a bad time?

What drivel. Should the man have shoved OP? Absolutely not. Is it worth reporting to the police, without evidence, 7 years later? Absolutely not.