Don't know whether to report to police or not

LegacyUser

Hi guys,
I (female) was slapped in the face by a man the other night. He is a friend of an acquaintance and it was completely unprovoked. I was sitting down at the time.
I have no witnesses or even a mark on my face as a result. The acquaintance - his friend - was subsequently punched by him but I didn't see it. My friends are urging me to go to the police but I am afraid to as I don't know what will happen. I don't want to go to court I just want the guards to scare him. But I am scared I'll be accused of making it up - CCTV will prove our whereabouts but the incident happened in private. I also want to just forget about it but I would feel like a wimp to do so. What do the police usually do in these circumstances. Thanks

Typer Monkey

It's entirely up to you wether you report the assault or not. As there was no injury caused it would likely fall into the category of Section 2 Non Fatal Offences Against the Person Act (Simple Assault) if you want to look it up.


If you report an assault to gardai they will investigate it ie: take a statement from you, a statement from him, check CCTV, prepare a file and get directions as to whether there is sufficient evidence to support an assault charge. If an assault charge is justified then this will result in a court case where you will be required to give evidence. Gardai aren't in the business of 'scaring people'. If you have no intention of following through with a prosecution then you're only wasting everyone's time by reporting it.

ManOfMystery

You should report this. The Gardai can then decide if they have enough to go on. Not reporting it will leave this man believing that he can do this to people and get away with it, and perhaps his behaviour will be worse for the next unfortunate victim.

Rubberchikken

what a terrible thing to happen.
unprovoked or not, there's no excuse for hitting anyone.
if you really want to do anything about it, you'll have to speak to the gardai.

if you don't, then maybe avoiding these people would be the next best thing.
good luck

Taboola

Typer Monkey wrote: »

If you report an assault to gardai they will investigate it ie: take a statement from you, a statement from him, check CCTV, prepare a file and get directions as to whether there is sufficient evidence to support an assault charge. If an assault charge is justified then this will result in a court case where you will be required to give evidence. Gardai aren't in the business of 'scaring people'. If you have no intention of following through with a prosecution then you're only wasting everyone's time by reporting it.

+1 to this. If you aren't prepared to follow through with this there is no point going to the Gardai.

Unfortunately it's going to be your word against his. Sorry to hear this has happened to you.

Ham Sambo

Any man who strikes a woman is not a man, more than likely there is not a lot the Gardai can do, however if reported to the gardai that basta*d will be called in for questioning, that alone might hop the life from him. Best of luck.

Ham Sambo

Ham Sambo wrote: »

Any man who strikes a woman is not a man, more than likely there is not a lot the Gardai can do, however if reported to the gardai that basta*d will be called in for questioning, that alone might hop the life from him. Best of luck.

How about any man that strikes anyone unprovoked is not a man? Violence in general is abhorrent, regardless of gender.

OP, it really depends on you. As others have mentioned, if you have no intention of going through with it, then you shouldn't report it.

Witchie

Ham Sambo wrote: »

Any man who strikes a woman is not a man, more than likely there is not a lot the Gardai can do, however if reported to the gardai that basta*d will be called in for questioning, that alone might hop the life from him. Best of luck.

I agree that reporting it will mean that Gardai will question him and this will let him know that you are not to be messed with.

I would report it and let them decide if they can press charges or not.

hullaballoo

I had something similar happen to me at a party once while in college - a big fella who had form for this sort of thing just punched me as I was walking by him. I will always regret not going to the Gardaí about it. I just went on with my night like an eejit.

Anyway, the thing that gets me is that he would do this sort of thing regularly, according to his friends. Maybe if I had been a bit more aware of myself and what had happened, reporting it to the Gardaí might have stopped him doing it again to someone else.

sabat

Sorry, I misread the op, as corrected by another poster below.

fineso.mom

I think the op said the acquaintance was punched by the same guy . Not that the acquaintance punched the guy.

CaraMay

You definitely do?!?! If not he's only going to continue to thump the head off other random strangers.

njs030

If you're not prepared to follow through with a prosecution/court appearance then don't contact the guards. They aren't there to scare people, they have a job to do and your complaint will be followed up properly- which includes paperwork and a guards time. There probably wouldn't be any prosecution as you have no proof it happened but it's never a good idea to treat the guards like your own personal service.

Witchie

notjustsweet wrote: »

If you're not prepared to follow through with a prosecution/court appearance then don't contact the guards. They aren't there to scare people, they have a job to do and your complaint will be followed up properly- which includes paperwork and a guards time. There probably wouldn't be any prosecution as you have no proof it happened but it's never a good idea to treat the guards like your own personal service.

This is wrong in some ways. The OP is best to report it. For all they know there may already be some cases pending and this guy may have a long file so by making the complaint it might help another case.

Also by having the complaint on record they are also making sure that if he does hit someone else and that they in turn make a complaint, the case is stronger.

It is not a waste of their time to go report it even if nothing happens initially.

njs030

Witchie wrote: »

This is wrong in some ways. The OP is best to report it. For all they know there may already be some cases pending and this guy may have a long file so by making the complaint it might help another case.

Also by having the complaint on record they are also making sure that if he does hit someone else and that they in turn make a complaint, the case is stronger.

It is not a waste of their time to go report it even if nothing happens initially.

You can't use information from one case in another, especially if there's no proof or conviction.

Secondly the Op said she wanted the guards to give him a scare but didn't want it to go further....that isn't a choice she gets to make. You either report a crime or you don't.