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.

Kind of get the impression that a few of these women posting on this thread had actually been in the pool at the time it happened and saw it all, they would turn the other way and deliberately not get involved.

Thanks for your support, ladies.

Can't believe people are criticising the OP for her reaction to an unexpected assault whilst swimming followed by an aggressive encounter with the same man and a lack of action from the lifeguard. Because that's the main issue, right? The OPs reaction, rather than the fact that a man assaulted her for just going about her business.

Report it to the police, even if they can't or won't take action. Then report it to the sports centre management letting them know you've reported it to the police. The lifeguard should be able to manage incidents in or around the pool, or be able to call for back up if they can't handle the situation.

This, especially the bit about the lifeguard.

If this man has done this with several people then the pool management need to sort it out.

I was in the pool" at the end of the lane and he was standing over me? How on earth could I "walk away"???

Have you seriously never been in a swimming pool and realised what the acoustics are like?

Jesus. What on earth is going on?

And why on earth would someone not shout at someone to leave them alone?

Hope you're feeling ok. Definitely report to the manager and police. Sooner rather than later in case they delete any CCTV.

Because something traumatic happened to her and she’s trying to make sense of it. There often isn’t any sense to be made but it’s understandable to try to. Empathy is great though, you should try it. It’s free.

No of course not. But lifeguard who witnessed thought it was an accidental collision not a deliberate push. If Op thinks he deliberately pushed her under water then of course report immediately - why even ask on here. But at the time the Op felt safe enough to carry on swimming in same lane close to the man and then lose sight of him. I wouldn’t have carried on swimming near someone who had tried to kill me and I certainly wouldn’t let them out of my sight - what if he’d grabbed her from behind.

He's a nutter. Please report.

Report the facts to the pool management:

Man in lane, pushed me under the water and proceeded to be verbally aggressive. Later he came and continued this verbal aggression.

Lifeguard claimed not to have seen the incident as it happened and failed to diffuse the situation but instead permitted the man to continue with his aggression inflaming the situation by insisting that my experience of the event was incorrect.

Request: Investigation of the incident, review of CCTV.

Review of lifeguard responsibilities - if they are not there to protect the public from harassment from other swimmers, suggest training is given on how to diffuse situations or not get involved.

Reminder to the public that this is a place where people have a right to be free from harassment and swim peacefully as long as they are sticking to the swimming etiquette, which is defined as... rules should be clearly visible beside the pool.

Meanwhile, report the assault to the police.

On second thoughts - do you have a friendly police station? Could you report this first and ask if they are likely to request CCTV to review the incident - in which case I might hold off on raising the issue with the pool management until after the Police have requested the CCTV - if indeed it does exist.

This is the start of a horror story. Please report.

Also, posters, please stop gaslighting. The OP has explained what happened do why are you getting it twisted?

That sounds so scary. Definitely report - if you give a full description of him and the time he was there, they should be able to identify who he was. I'd be asking the manager to bar him from swimming there, and would kick up a fuss until I got to speak to the manager about it.

I think you should speak to the Police informally tonight and say you feel it was a dangerous assault but you are not sure what to do, ask them what the drill is.

Please be very kind to yourself as it sounds very unpleasant and scary

You can report to the pool if you want to in time.

Perhaps I am being harsh on the lifeguard. He wasn't particularly effective, especially when the man was shouting at me. He could have told him to leave me alone or to stop shouting.

Lifeguards generally don't want to get involved.

Honestly I got such a fright today and I'm not easily frightened, I've swam in loads of pools for most of my life, relatively few incidents but experienced it all really, until now, nothing like this. It was so deliberate. Its horrible to feel someone touching you without your permission at all, never mind pushing you down heavily on your shoulder so that you go under the water.

I had exactly the same issue. Mine happened last summer and when I talked about it on social media I had over 1000 responses - many women telling me they had also been pushed or held under the water - often by men who had not liked being overtaken by a faster women.

I reported to the police and the man was called in but he got away with writing me a rubbish apology letter claiming he hadn’t thought that holding a woman underwater would be intimidating until his wife and sisters had pointed it out to him.

I would absolutely make a fuss - the more we do the more the lifeguards and pools learn that we won’t just shut up and be intimidated - but I wouldn’t expect a positive response from the police.

And so sorry this happened to you. Swimming is such a lovely sport but can feel scary when you get attacked like that - but please don’t let it put you off.

Report to police. There is your statement, plus the lifeguard's (at least they admit they heard you cry out) and possibly footage. The man may have done similar elsewhere and they will have a record of that - or if he ever does again, they will have your report to back it up.

metro.co.uk/2021/07/01/woman-dragged-underwater-by-swimmer-after-overtaking-him-in-pool-14856169/

If it’s a membership pool not pay per swim they will have his details.

Make a formal complaint as soon as possible and ask them to retain the CCTV.

Then police.
Don't let them gaslight you about this, this man assaulted you when you were extremely vulnerable and he should be banned from that pool.

The lifeguard just doesn't want to take on a big violent bloke for the sake of some woman who is probably uppity and causing him a bit of bother.

Jeez you must be really shaken up!
That is so dangerous. I would report to the police, they won't necessarily do anything without cctv however it's important they have it on file. If this man decides to attack another woman again or has before they have a case building up against him. And yes you absolutely were attacked!

I'm horrified the women on here that are questioning why you were in the lane etc etc. These same people would ask what a woman was wearing when she got rapped, or what time she went out running when she was killed - because of course there's always something that can be done to avoid being attacked 😡

You're clearly not a swimmer, and you clearly allow yourself to be easily intimidated. I screamed, called the lifeguard over and words were exchanged. I then moved away from the scene by continuing to swim, because the man who pushed me under wasn't doing so, having alerted the lifeguard to his behaviour.

I couldn't swim in the rest of the pool because it was full of inflatables. The man who pushed me then wasn't in the lane any more so I continued swimming.

What exactly am I supposed to have done so terribly wrong here???

In terms of "feeling safe", I did assume that I wasn't going to be assaulted again in public by the same man, having drawn attention to it.

Well we don't know how the incident looked from where he was, he might have been ignoring something or it might genuinely have looked like an accidental collision to him.

Definately report it and make a formal complaint about the lifeguard too.

never mind contacting the pool, inform the Police, this is assault.

Ps to those asking why she took her eyes off him and didn't get out etc - erm shock!! We don't always react in the best way possible after experiencing something like this - that's human nature. Like the lady who went back into the dark room after being approached by the sex pest! Same thing shock. Stop blaming the OP for someone trying to drown her!!!