To let you know the axe and machete girl WAS defending herself against her now convicted attacker.

[alittleprivacy]

A lot of posters here need to see the conclusion of this story about the clearly terrified child, that so many people were quick to be awful about. You all owe this extremely vulnerable child you participated in the defamation of, a massive fucking apology. I'm genuinely so angry about how so many grown women denigrated a hurt and scared child. Her fear was so evident in her voice and demeanor and so many mothers here were quick to throw her under a bus. Well you've all been proven wrong now, with the man she was trying to defend herself from found guilty of assault.

Honestly, just think about what you people did, defending a man who assaulted a child just because she was of a class you deem beneath you. I hope you're very, very ashamed and take stock before more girls like her suffer worse.

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/uk/bulgarian-man-guilty-of-assaulting-12-year-old-girl/a/156878498.html

What are sexual remarks if not hurty words? That cuts both ways surely

Bottom line, the right person was prosecuted and convicted, and the girl needs some work done with her about carrying weapons in public. End of.

The reason we have knife crime at schools is because people will find some reason to excuse this girl carrying weapons.

Deeply disturbing, yeah.

After standing back up she pulled out an axe and knife she said had been hidden in her waistband for five to 10 minutes before the incident.

So she’d gone out with them. Right. Completely normal behaviour.

Nobody is excusing the man’s behaviour whatsoever, but what on planet earth is a 12 year old doing leaving the house with an axe, and where on that earth are her parents.

I was repeatedly abused as a child. I kept a knife down the side of my bed but was never brave enough to use it.

I missed that part of the article, where it says it was an ongoing problem and that’s why she was carrying weapons.

Sexual remarks towards a 12 year old child are just hurty words, according to you?

What’s wrong with you?

What are sexual remarks if not hurty wordsThat cuts both ways surely

Wow

Its incredibly disturbing that a 12 year old little girl feels so scared of the man harassing her that she feels she needs to carry weapons to protect herself. Don't you see that? She is a child, he is a man.

I'm calling out the craziness of a little girl so scared of a grown man that she's carrying weapons, while the adults turn a blind eye to him and blame her for her fear. Good God shame on you.

Throwing back at you abuse. You dont think racist abuse is anything more than hurty words? So other verbal abuse must be the same then yes?

Try not to tie yourself up in knots with it.

Literally no one has turned a blind eye to him, he was charged and convicted. No one is saying that shouldn’t be the case.

That does not mean it’s okay for anyone to be roaming the streets of the UK with an axe.
I thought that’s exactly the sort of shit people agreed was unacceptable in a civilised society?

“The court heard that Belov had said "hello sexy, I'll show you a good time" to the girls while walking past them in the Lochee area of the city.
After one of the girls called him a creep, he had returned to confront the group and called his sister, who arrived shortly afterwards and assaulted one of the girls.
Belov then claimed he had seen the girl's weapon and, fearing for his sister had pushed her.
He claimed the children had called him a migrant and used an expletive.
But Sheriff Tim Niven-Smith rejected Belov's claim of self-defence and said the girls' evidence had been "eloquent."
He said: "I am entirely satisfied by proof beyond reasonable doubt that the trigger for all of this were the comments that you made."

Maybe try and read what the judge said?

Why do people come on here to respond that they know nothing about the incident? Why not research before you trot by to minimise it?

I read what the judge said.

Its irrelevant to what I was responding to

Is racial abuse hurty words or not. is it abuse or not?

I dont doubt there was racial abuse as well as what he said.

Both abuse. Or both hurty words. Take your pick

Doesnt necessitate carrying weapons.

The worst possible narrative is trying to justify young people, or any people, carrying weapons 'for defence'. Not justifiable.

I’m not engaging with your whataboutery.

Judge’s remarks are very much relevant. He funds the girl’s evidence credible. He does not find there was racial abuse.

If you can’t see how wrong it is to address sexual remarks to a child, then I can’t help you.

Just more evidence of classism and how it affects vulnerable girls, such as in the grooming gang victims. She's rough, mouthy and white wc so lots of centrist and left wing politicians/media blamed and demonised her initially.

Well, apart from the right and far right wing people on twitter who held her up as a folk hero. Sophie of Dundee.

Let's not forget SHE was the one initially arrested and charged, with the info released to the public straight away. They didn't arrest these two until April this year ? May be wrong.
And he was on social media telling everyone her mum was a crackhead and the girls were making a big drama out of nothing! But actually it was all lies and thank goodness he's been charged.

Obviously the child shouldn't be carrying around weapons..but clearly she doesn't feel protected by the police and a local man is sexually harassing teen girls and has a wild sister who comes and physically assaults them.. I can understand why

Nobody here did that.

@likelysuspect "The worst possible narrative is trying to justify young people, or any people, carrying weapons 'for defence'. Not justifiable"

I thought she was under the impression that's how she saved herself from becoming the next rape gang victim

Someone asked where her parents were. I don't know. But I do know that some of the parents of the rape gang victims were shut down too.

maybe there is more to this that I don't know about it's not something I've researched a lot

I would ask yourself what she must've seen or been through herself in order to carry those

Me, I asked where her parents were.

Instead of telling the courts that her daughter had been “dragged about” during the incident, her mother should have done something about her twelve year old carrying offensive weapons in the street.

There’s also nothing in any article I’ve read that suggests this wasn’t a one off occurrence and she was ever going to be “the next rape gang victim.” That doesn’t make the incident right, but it does raise the question why she’d already have them available, and who allowed her to even have them.

Good thing there was CCTV.

It's entirely possible even likely her motivation for carrying the weapons was rooted in fearnofnsomemsort. It could have been:

• fear of crime from other children/teenagers. Lots of boys that carry knives do so for this reason
• fear of crime from strange adults (possibly rooted in experience)
• fear of crime/agression from people she knew (also likely rooted in experience)

I do know that the very mouthy, aggression-as-defense girl I was scared of when I was that age turned out to have been very badly treated. But not by immigrants or Muslims. Usually when children are that (conflict orientated?) there is a reason. It doesn't mean that foreign men are to blame (I know the Bulgarian man was foreign, but until that interaction he probably wasn't the reason she was carrying the knife). So leaping to the conclusion that she must have needed to carry the knife because of grooming gangs is an extrapolation.

So I am glad that the Bulgarian man was sentenced because it's never OK to shout sexual things at a 12 year old. Plus escalating the situation and pushing her. But also the reason she was carrying the knives needs looking at and working with. Not just handwaving away as "defense". It could be a challenging home life or something external. But kids with knives is a bad thing.

To be clear, I wasn't trying to speculate on what the girls exact reasons were. But I also don't think the right holding her up as a sort of folk hero/shield maiden for carrying weapons is helpful. Or assuming they know the reason (grooming gangs) and assigning a whole narrative to her actions. Juat as a general rule, children that carry knives need strong encouragement to stop carrying them and investigation into their motives. Not people supporting it/deciding they know why. It's not helpful for her or other children exposed to that sort of messaging.

He sexually harassed 4 girls age 12 and 13 phoned his sister when the girls called him creepy the this grown man and his grown sister started physically assaulting the girls.
Are you honestly surprised that the girl was armed and forced to defend herself, her younger sister and friends. Can you imagine what these adults would have done to those girls if she hadn't been armed?
In Scotland women and girls are not protected by the police or government, when girls are being targeted by male immigrants on the way into school at break and lunchtime they have gangs of men surrounding the school gates and the same at home time do you know what the police did? To the men nothing, didn't move them on, didn't ban them from going there, they didn't even send police officers to keep an eye on these men daily no what they did was hand out rape alarms to the girls. So now girls are protecting themselves

https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/news/scottish-news/schoolgirls-handed-rape-alarms-amid-36982464

It was a hatchet not an axe just to be clear