20th July: I was assaulted last night

Last night was just an absolute fucking disaster from start to finish, tbh. After finishing work (working from home), I set off at around 7pm to reach my destination as I was needed back in the office for the rest of the week (our office doesn’t have A/C so we were allowed to work from home on Mon & Tues on account of the heatwave), though it soon dawned on me that this was not going to prove a simple task. I arrived in London around 10.30pm and found both my 10.30pm and then 11.30pm trains had been fully cancelled. The reasoning they gave was that the tracks couldn’t handle the heat, but surely metal is strong enough to withstand even the most potent of temperatures? 

As hoards of fellow commuters gathered around the departure board, looking forlorn at the rows of cancellations on the electronic board, I managed to earwig on a small group of middle-aged folk who were heading to the same destination as me. Seeking their advice, we attempted to grab one of the very few operational trains to a nearby town, and agreed to split the £40 taxi to our final destination. In doing so, we pulled over and they exited the car. I told the driver to just take me a bit further as I was staying in a house at the top of a big hill a 20 minute-walk from town, which seemed a bit unsafe to walk at 1am. It was at this point that we noticed a woman staggering up the hill, with a man supporting her as she looked intoxicated and was struggling to walk in a straight line. The man approached the car, explaining that he worked in the local pub and that this woman had been in there all night, and now needed to grab a cab home, but she lived a fair old distance away. 

The driver was hesitant to allow her into the taxi, but I felt bad about a woman going home alone at 1am, especially in her drugged/drunken state. I tried to do the right thing and persuaded the cabbie to allow her in, telling him he could take me to my destination and then take her to hers, after he’d dropped me off. As the woman clambered onto the backseat (with myself sitting in the front passenger seat), the driver asked her for the agreed fee (£40) up front, in cash, which seemed more than fair enough. However, the woman kept rustling around in her bag, telling us she was looking for the cash, and it was quite clear she was stalling time. She kept yelling at the driver, telling him to ‘just drive’, and every time he asked for the cash, she would scream “I’ve got the fucking money!”, but never actually produce it, show it to either of us, or pay the driver. 

This went on for around 20 minutes and the woman was growing more and more volatile with every passing minute, screeching that she had the money, but never actually paying (she clearly didn’t have it). She started to become abusive towards both myself and the driver, launching a tirade of foul insults at us. At this point, sensing danger, I started recording a video in selfie mode on my phone from the front seat, capturing footage of her aggressive state without her noticing. The driver, myself, and the man from the pub (who was stood by the car the whole time), agreed that we wouldn’t physically remove her from the car, but after asking her to get out on several occasions if she couldn’t pay, she refused, growing more insulting towards us. The driver wanted that he would call the police if this persisted, and so, did so, with the very clearly coked up woman, sniffing relentlessly and rubbing her nose, still in the car. 

Now, the woman was starting to threaten us, warning she was gonna ‘punch us in the face’ in a minute. I mentioned to her that she should just pay, as I had been travelling for 7 hours by this point, and I’d need to wake up in a few hours for work. It had been 38 celsius and I just wanted to get in and take a shower. At this point, she flung herself forward, forming a tight fist and punched me hard in the side of the head, around the temple/upper cheekbone area. We were on the phone to the police at the time anyway, so they heard this and immediately called two officers to come down to the scene. They informed us we should exit the car for our own safety, and lock her inside. Both the driver and the pub worker agreed that they had witnessed the assault and stayed with me to explain the events to the police once they arrived. 

In the end, the officers chose to take the woman home, rather than put her in the cells for the night, explaining that they’d take a statement from her in the morning when she was in a less intoxicated state. So she essentially managed to get a free lift home without even paying a taxi fare. Pretty clever, really. I gave my statement and will 100% be pressing charges should this result in a court case. I also wonder, if female privilege played a part here. If a well-built, 6 foot 2 inch man like myself had battered a sober female passenger around the head in an unprovoked manner, would the cops politely drive me home, or take me to the cells for the night? What do you think? I think we all know the answer to that. I find it ironic, actually, how - as men - we are taught to look out for vulnerable females - but in refusing to allow a woman to walk home by herself late at night in case she gets assaulted, it is actually the man, who himself is trying to get home safely, who gets assaulted. One thing this has taught me, is to never help anyone. Just look out for yourself. If she didn’t have enough money for a cab home because she’d blown the last of her wad on a gram of very clearly, awful quality, cocaine, then that’s her problem. I wish I’d left the junkie in the gutter...

... Where she belongs.