Can I have an opinion please?

[Mrsemcgregor]

I would be particularly interested in a legal opinion as I am not particularly knowledgeable in that department.

I don't want to go into too much detail as to my involvement in the situation, but I will just say it was in a professional capacity. (I know neither of the people involved outside of this particular event)

During a night out a young woman was out with her friend in a club enjoying herself, yes she had been drinking. Whilst she was in the club she bumped into her ex-boyfriend. He wanted to talk to her, she did not want to talk. She ended up leaving the club alone to get away from him.

He followed her from the club shouting at her, intent on getting her attention. He aggressively pursued her along the street, she was half running and he kept grabbing her shoulder to try and turn her around. I witnessed this, she made it very clear she wanted to be left alone. After 4/5 times of being grabbed she slapped him. He then punched her in the face and she fell to the floor.

I attended to her and gave first aid for a swollen and bruised cheek.

A police officer also witnessed this and allowed the man to go as she had slapped him first and the two assaults cancelled each other out.

Is this right? It didn't sit well with me at the time, I argued with the officer but got told in no uncertain terms to shut up and do my job (medical).

Thank you all so much for your insight. It's been really helpful to me.

Time isn't necessarily a barrier, many venues keep CCTV for months or even years. Ultimately you can't complain about the officer as it was down to her to push him to take action. I recently stopped a police van with two officers in it because they had driven past an unconscious girl at the side of the road three times. It was about 1am and they did not give a shit because she was intoxicated. I literally had to threaten them out of the van to take some responsible action for a very young and obviously vulnerable girl laying in the road.

You should absolutely dob in any police officers if they have been negligent, as long as you can personally afford to do so. Otherwise, see if there are any other witnesses who can dob them in
without major comeback.

The police are supposed to ensure our safety. Being kind to them because in retrospect they might 'also feel that a mistake was made that evening' doesn't cut it. Unless people raise complaints nothing will change.

Police these days are extensively trained on DV, coercive control, dangers of ex-partners etc. If they are making 'mistakes' it's either willful or they are too stupid to be in the police. Or they don't have the necessary resources to deal with the problem (priorities?).

Whichever of these is the cause of this particular incident, it needs reporting if you can, but I recognise not everybody can.

You can make a complaint if you have: [among other things]

witnessed in person an incident where a police officer, member of police staff, contractor working for the police or a police volunteer acted inappropriately

IPPC

There isn't such a thing as a DV victim 'pressing charges'.

Anyone can report a crime, so technically you could report this. The police then should abide by the positive action / positive arrest policy ie should arrest a perpetrator whether the victim wants it or not - this is to try to deal with the fact that many victims are too scared to say they want a case to go ahead. In this instance the officer could have taken them both to the station and taken statements from both, even if he genuinely believed she instigated the assaults (obviously she didn't).

Obviously it sounds like there are so many crimes here police could take loads of action against this.

Also, given what she's told you someone (DV agency, your agency?) should look at reporting this to the local MARAC given that he's strangled her in the past and now stalking her - she's at really high risk.

In reality if the victim doesn't want a prosecution there won't be one in 9/10 instances. Lost count of how many times victims have changed their mind only to be later assaulted again. One extreme case which wasn't mine but one of a friend, the lady was a long term victim who refused to give statements against an abusive partner. The CPS erred and decided not to prosecute despite other evidence, he later killed her. On the flip side the family court give out non-mols like sweets often based on absolutely no evidence.

I don't know the law, and it might be very misogynist, but ethically, the violent man was in the wrong and of course, a slap in self-defense is not anywhere near the same as punching someone in an attack!

That police officer was an asshole. IF the law is misogynist and enables violent men, then a decent police officer would explain that and be kind about the whole thing. Which is not what happened.

I'm concerned that she wanted to press charges and the officer said no, not sure how that works but it sounds really worrying.

There was a study in the US that showed men who use strangling as a form of violence are 8 times more likely to perpetrate further violence.

So much so that certain states have a specific category for violence involving strangulation.

He'd already committed assault and battery, she slapped him in self-defence. He then punched her, committing further battery. It's all fucking misogyny to think these things are equal.

It used to be the case that the police would harass people who put in complaints against them. Is that no longer the case?