Assaulted in the Swimming Pool - Worth Reporting?

[RedEcho]

Name changed in case identifying.

Today I was at my local pool, which is always very quiet around this time of year. There is always one lane up, the pool was empty apart from one man swimming very slow breastroke up the middle of the lane. I headed for the lane, he saw me and so I started swimming up one side to go in the usual clockwise direction that is standard in lanes. I do a reasonably quick, efficient front crawl. The third time of doing this, he sort of paused as I passed him on the other side (I could see him under the water) and then I felt a pressure on my left shoulder and he pushed me down under the water.

I had a couple of moments of panic where you can't breathe and then he must have removed his hand and I bobbed up. Then he started shouting at me, I don't even know what. I told him to leave me alone. The lifeguard did nothing. I resumed swimming and tried not to make a fuss. He seemed to disappear after that.

At one point in my swim, I stopped to get my pull bouy at the end of the lane and he must have been in the showers opposite because the same man walked to the front of the lane and started shouting at me again. Something to do with swimming that he seemed to take great objection to and he asked me what I thought I was doing. I called the lifeguard over and he was rather blase and claimed that we had swam into each other. We had not. I actually cried out in shock quite loudly when I surfaced and the lifeguard admitted hearing this. The man deliberately assaulted me by putting his hand on my shoulder and pushing me under, and there had been plenty of room to pass. I told the man, repeatedly to leave me alone and said that I was here to swim. I had to shout at him 5 times to leave me alone while the lifeguard did nothing. Eventually he moved away.

Once I'd finished swimming I spoke to the lifeguard and asked him what he had seen/heard. He again claimed that we had swam into each other and was prevaricative when I asked why he hadn't told the man to leave me alone and why he didn't seem to understand what that meant. I realised I was getting nowhere with him as he was probably sticking up for the other man and left.

I think what happened is that the man in the lane expected me to acknowledge him, chat to him a bit or something (I really feel uncomfortable talking to strangers in pools wearing just a swimsuit) and when I ignored him and just got on with swimming, he decided to do something to draw my attention to him, like a "she's not getting away with me ignoring me".

I'm absolutely fuming though. You feel so vulnerable when you're in a swimsuit in an almost empty pool and it was a proper assault. I mean I'm not injured, but it was horrible. I won't use that pool again, I've heard of other people having similar troubles there and I'll use a different one further away, but is there any point at all in reporting this to the police? The lifeguard is obviously going to be of little or no help and the man is only going to claim I swam into him or some other made up story.

I have to say its not all that unusual for people to be unreasonable aggrieved by people swimming faster than them, particularly men.

@RedEcho I swim regularly too and this has certainly been my experience.

I’m glad you’ve reported it. What an awful thing to go through, particularly with the lifeguard appearing not to take it seriously!

I imagine the man was simply annoyed at your presence, and whatever you’d done in that situation would’ve been ‘wrong’.

It’s a shame that women can’t even go for a fucking swim without having to deal with this shit. Regardless of what you did in that situation, his actions are completely out of order.

or men trying to strike up conversations with them for which they are expected to be grateful whilst they're swimming and simply want to be left alone?

If a man or anyone starts chatting to me, I'll either chat back or say "hello, I'm carrying on with my swim".

I don't automatically assume the man is being demanding or that he thinks I should be grateful, just that he's a person who's saying hello to a fellow swimmer.
I've swum for years, chatting to men and women. I've had the odd row with men and women, usually over them being dicks about lane etiquette.

I'm either lucky with my pool or completely oblivious to people's intentions!

I think you'll find assault in not assault. It would need to involve more than just a shove and It needs to leave a mark or injury to be tried as an offence.

@LuckyLil Incorrect.

An assault is any act (and not mere omission to act) by which a person intentionally or recklessly causes another to suffer or apprehend immediate unlawful violence.

Lifeguards are there to rescue you if you're drowning, they are not paid enough to act like security guards intervening in petty arguments between grown adults that should know better.
I really don't understand why people thing that minimum wage staff members are obliged to get involved in arguments between customers?

Lifeguards are there to rescue you if you're drowning, they are not paid enough to act like security guards intervening in petty arguments between grown adults that should know better.

They are there to ensure safety in and around the pool. That might include stopping arguments.

(And while they may be low wage, they didn't used to be minimum wage, though I don't know current rates. You need to be qualified to do it.)

Had a look on indeed, in SE England no lifeguard vacancy paying over £10.50 an hour - 90% paying £9.50 an hour. No one in their right mind is going to be doing anything beyond the bare minimum for that kind of pay. Certainly not enough to be getting involved in arguments between customers

A man holding a woman's head under the water without her consent, is not a petty argument between grown adults, it's a criminal assault.

HTH.

I haven't read the full thread just OP comments, I swim 3 times a week and at least once a week there's an aggressive man in the pool. They usually join the slow lane and then proceed to ignore the signs saying to swim clockwise or anti-clockwise dependent on the lane, they overtake, shove, bump into you and just generally make you feel uncomfortable.

OP the pools generally do have CCTV both in the waiting areas and covering the pool itself, certainly the ones I use do as I always look for the cameras so I can see if there will be footage in the event of an issue.

You have a legal right to request the footage under GDPR, there should be signage up advising on the contact details to request that, if not go to the leisure centre website and find their privacy policy, they will have contact details for the DPO within the privacy policy. You need to be quick as often footage is only retained for 14-30 days and it can take a few days for the request to filter to the right person.

That's not what the lifeguard saw, only what the OP thinks may of occurred. The lifeguard saw a common collision between two swimmers then some verbal confrontation afterwards.
The OP seems aggrieved that the Lifeguard wasn't intervening and sticking up for her - why would he get involved for £9.50 an hour?

Id report it to the swimming pool and the lifeguards response, theyll be cctv surely so they can check to verify your version. If not dealt with report to the police

Used to work for the police so it might have changed, back then an assault with no physical marks would be a common assault and you could get six months. Doesn't even have to be any physical contact.

He did not hold her head under water. Stop making things up. Although simply touching so done without consent can be considered assault, an assault needs to fit certain perameters in which a criminal offence occurred for example ABH or GBH which leave a mark or injury on a person. Just saying the words I was assaulted doesn't necessarily make it an assault.

P.S.

HTH.

Common Assault – s.39 Criminal Justice Act 1988
An assault is any act (and not mere omission to act) by which a person intentionally or recklessly causes another to suffer or apprehend immediate unlawful violence.

The term assault is often used to include a battery, which is committed by the intentional or reckless application of unlawful force to another person. Where there is a battery, the defendant should be charged with ‘assault by beating’: DPP v Little [1992] QB 645. Provided there has been an intentional or reckless application of unlawful force the offence will have been committed, however slight the force.

Assault, as distinct from battery, can be committed by an act indicating an intention to use unlawful violence against the person of another – for example, an aimed punch that fails to connect. In Misalati [2017] EWCA 2226 the appellant spat towards the complainant. The appeal court confirmed that although there was no actual violence, spitting is an assault whether it makes contact with the victim or causes fear of immediate unlawful physical contact.

Guidance on potential defences is set out in the separate legal guidance Self-defence and the Prevention of Crime. A person may use such force as is reasonable in the circumstances for the purposes of:

self-defence
defence of another
defence of property
prevention of crime; or
lawful arrest.
An element of the offence of common assault is lack of consent so that the prosecution may (where it is a live issue) have to establish that the offence was committed without consent. However, a lack of consent can be inferred from evidence other than the direct evidence of the victim – CPS v Shabbir [2009] EWHC 2754 (Admin). Most of the physical contacts of ordinary life are not actionable because they are impliedly consented to by all who move in society and so expose themselves to the risk of bodily contact: Collins v Wilcock [1984] 1 WLR 1172.

Common assault is a summary offence. However, if the requirements of section 40 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 are met it can be included as a count on an indictment.

Special considerations apply to common assault where the defence of reasonable punishment of a child falls for consideration - see the Reasonable Punishment of a Child section below.

Does this incident sound like it fits the criteria to you?

I didn’t realise you was there!! Why didn’t you stop this man from assaulting her!

Or you could read the OP’s post and acknowledge that her head was underwater because he forcibly pushed her shoulder under.

I still can't believe people are minimising this. So suppose OP had actually drowned due to this incident and someone (not an MNer) had witnessed it? Would we then be going back and forth over whether it's assault or not?

The guy is a criminal who assaults women whether some here like it or not. If he's done it more than once there needs to be CCTV (hopefully this is ok) in the pool area and a sign saying why it's there (beware of psycho assaults by men). If it were me who'd been assaulted in this manner damned right I'd be creating havoc with the managers of this centre and the police and getting this man dealt with. My Eve shaming was bad enough.

I think shoving, bumping etc whilst aggressive and shouldn't be tolerated aren't in quite the same league as grabbing a shoulder (could be a man or woman he'd grabbed and shoving her head under water). Swimming pools should be coming down harder though on these men, swimming pools are closing I'd heard but there's no reason to have bullies who are aggressive just because they fancy a swim or want to be aggressive.

I’m not sure I would be brave enough to intervene in a situation like that. I think it’s quite a lot to ask of a lifeguard. He should definitely have called for help though. I would have done that at the very least.

@LuckyLil

Are you ok?

Because it's very odd to be so invested in discounting the account of a woman saying she was shoved by the shoulder underwater and as a result couldn't breathe for a few seconds, which when caught unawares is frightening as well as dangerous.

She's very clear about what happened in her very first post:

I felt a pressure on my left shoulder and he pushed me down under the water. I had a couple of moments of panic where you can't breathe and then he must have removed his hand and I bobbed up.

Also you said assault "would need to involve more than just a shove and It needs to leave a mark or injury to be tried as an offence" which is factually incorrect.

You shared the criteria for assault and asked if OP's situation could fit within the parameters.

Yes, here:

Provided there has been an intentional or reckless application of unlawful force the offence will have been committed, however slight the force.

Intentionally shoved her
Reckless as it was in water without warning
'However slight the force' means it doesn't matter how hard he pushed her, but OP said it was hard enough to keep her underwater for a few moments so relatively hard.

So to answer your question... yes, it fits the criteria.

I'm so sorry OP that there are so many posts on here minimising your experience.
You started a thread presumably in need of support and validation and I hope you have still found what you need.
This thread is a flavour of why we have so so far to go.

Good for you OP. I am also a swimmer and I have had bothersome interactions with men at the pool before as well. Reading your account stressed me out! Baffled by the responses of some posters to minimize what happened to you. Pushing down on someone's shoulder to submerge their head is not accidental contact, and it's a totally inappropriate response regardless of anything you could have done while swimming laps. He's lucky you didn't accidentally punch him, I'm sure I would have started flailing!

I'm sorry you had this scarey and unpleasant experience at your pool.
And all the crappy comments on here...

Please ignore posters like @LuckyLil - this is definitely legally a case of assault, and could be prosecuted, if the police and CPS chose to take you seriously.

I thought the suggestion of insisting on reporting it via the pool's Accident book was a great idea. This makes it harder for them to pretend it's not a problem, and forces them to think about it as a serious risk to health and safety.

And ignore the people saying that a lifeguard can't be expected to intervene in what was a life-threatening situation in a swimming pool. That is their job. It sounds like this particular guy needs some extra training in his responsibilities, and in equalities legislation.

I think you said it was a council-run pool? In which case I'd report it to the relevant council department (Leisure or Recreation or similar) and/or my local councillor as well - in case the pool management don't take it seriously enough. This man shouldn't be allowed to use the facilities in future, as he poses a serious risk to other swimmers.

I'd also make sure I got any CCTV footage of the incident myself if possible - do you know if the pool area is covered by cameras at all? www.gov.uk/request-cctv-footage-of-yourself

And I bet if you reached out locally - via local women swimmers/ FB - you'd find more people who'd had similar experiences of this guy (and possibly others) - I think this kind of casual entitlement is more prevalent than many MNers seem to believe.

Please let us know if you get any feedback from the pool management OP.

Re: lifeguard - the OP said the lifegaurd was not a youngster, but an older man. A similar age to the man who assaulted OP. We're not talking about a little shy teen here.

The teen lifegaurds at our local pool are happy enough to holler at kids who run round the edge.

Anyway, no matter what your age or wage it's not good enough to not see that a woman shouting ''leave me alone'' at a man who is NOT leaving her alone, in the space you are currently responsible for, is a situation which needs dealing with. No matter how they got into that situation.

Oh good god - that makes it worse! So probably in cahoots with her assailant.

If anyone would like me to, I can speak to a couple of old lawyer friends and find out the exact process/what's been done etc - if OP would like me to do this.