He grabbed me by the neck as I was attempting to make my way out of the club.

New submission from Sophie

On Sunday 15th January I was assaulted in the Vodka Revolution Bar on West Street. A man (who I had never spoken with, seen, or even made eye contact with) grabbed me by the neck as I was attempting to make my way out of the club. Perhaps this was some strange attempt to kiss me. Naturally, I pushed him back and asked him what he was doing, he then began shouting in my face. I was obviously shocked by this and looked around to see if anyone else had seen this and could help, two men stood next to him also shouting at me. The first guy hit me over the head and I walked away (after having a good shout!).

My friend and I went away to find a bouncer, and reported this incident to him. He asked me to point out the guy, which I did. The bouncer said that he would go and speak to him, so I waiting by the stairs with my friend, Katie. After 10-15 minutes, the bouncer returned, fresh drink in hand, and informed me that the man had told him that he “didn’t know what he was talking about”. To which I pointed out that “of course he would say that…”. The bouncer said that as he did not witness the incident, there was not much that could be done.

I told the bouncer that I wanted to report this incident to the police, he went away and fetched them and lead me towards the fire exit where they were waiting. I told one of the policeman exactly what happened, and he suggest that as my friend and I are “both pretty girls” we pretty much had to expect this sort of this. He mentioned the “pretty girls” comment a few times before I calmly accused him of being sexist and suggested to him that the fact that I am wearing a dress and have gone to a club does not give a man license to grab me, hit me and scream in my face. I then told him that if I had gone out in jeans in the middle of the day and this had happened to me, this may have ben treated very differently.

The officer took my details, as did one of the bouncers. Another police officer imerged and said that they were now going to kick the guy out – although I did not see this happen and it did not look as if they were going to. The officers stood around under the stairs just so that it looked like they were going to do something. The bouncers also told me that they would look at the CCTV and call me. My friend and I got our coats and left through the fire exit.

The next day, I have called the club and spoken with the manager who says that no one had logged this. No one would have contacted me. No one looked at the CCTV. This afternoon, the manager has looked for this incident on the CCTV and said that as the cameras are in a bad position, he would not be able to see anything. Not good enough.

I also spoke with the Chief Inspector of Brighton police who told me that it sounded as if the officer was being more “patronising” as opposed to sexit. I disagree – this was a case of sexism and victim blaming.

I was not drunk, although I had had a couple of drinks. I was wearing a short black dress. Where I am and what I am wearing should not give drunken men license to assault me, it should not give bouncers license to ignore me, and it should not give police officers license to blame me for the way I present myself. I thought that we were passed this – apparenty not.

No Responses

Author comments are in a darker gray color for you to easily identify the posts author in the comments