I’m assaulted twice while sleeping in the porch

Last night I was twice assaulted while sleeping in the porch (I sleep on the outside) by two different guys, at two different times – some coincidence. (The last time and only time I was assaulted in the porch was almost six months ago on 18 November when a stocky man in his thirties sat on the right hand side of my face.)

The first time, at 11.30pm, I was grabbed hard by both ankles – how he knew where to grab me, when I was in my sleeping bag with my back to the road and my head hidden, is a mystery to me – and with speed I was dragged in an arc down the two marble steps of the porch, carried 2 or 3 metres and then released, having been turned a full 180 degrees. I was quite shocked, but I distinctively remember, like some frozen memory, seeing the guy joining his three friends and looking back at me before turning down the main street.

He carried out this assault in full view of CCTV (we are in a business area after all) and even some passers-by, but this was a man on a mission, not too concerned with such banalities. I don’t remember how I got back to the porch – did I stand up or crawl? But I know now that when I woke Declan to ask for my notepad and pen (I was boiling with anger and wanted to get even), he didn’t understand that I had just been dragged onto the street like a sack of potatoes and he told me to go back to sleep – he was wearing earplugs and thought I had said to him that somebody had just moved my feet.

I couldn’t sleep for some time, in part because there was something that kept bothering me: was I supposed to get a lump on my head and a broken arm or hand instead of the severe bruising I now have on my left thigh and forearm, as well as a sore left wrist and little finger?

Declan doesn’t think so though: the attack was at 11.30pm when sleep quality is not at its best and so, at least in theory, I was more likely to lift my head up in a reflex action; the attacker was in his late 20s and was athletic and strong, meaning he was confident he wouldn’t bang my head; and I was dragged in an arc rather than pulled straight to the street, the latter more likely to have banged my head not once but twice. There was a small element of risk to my head that would explain, Declan says, why the assailant felt compelled to look back. Oh well. Declan has a degree in Physical Education, and I am sure he knows best.

The second attack happened at 3.45am – again I had my back to the street and my head inside the sleeping bag. After the guy twice shouted at us “Ahhhh” (probably to wake us up), he kicked me in the back with the sole of his shoe.

Now it just so happens that yesterday morning Declan telephoned the office of Chief Superintendent Jerry Savill, newly appointed borough commander for Tower Hamlets, and was informed that if he wants to obtain a copy of the statement that Detective Constable Alexander Head took on 27 April – Declan was punched twice in the face in the Whitechapel Mission on 17 February – he should do so under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, not the Data Protection Act 1998 (see blog of 28 April).

So, this morning Declan sent the following registered letter to CS Savill (for the statement Declan handed DC Head see here, and for the chronology in respect of Declan's efforts to have his statement taken see here):

Dear CS Savill

Re:  Crime ref: 4204886/07

Further to my telephone call to your office yesterday, I hereby request in pursuance of section 8(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, a copy of the statement that was written by DC Alexander Head on my behalf in Bethnal Green Police Station on 27 April 2007 in relation to the assault on me in the Whitechapel Mission on 17 February 2007.

I enclose copy of the statement I handed to DC Head on 27 April 2007, some of which he transcribed verbatim, and copy of chronology in respect of my efforts to have my statement taken.

Yours sincerely

Declan Heavey

cc Sir Ian Blair, Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis (by registered post – together with enclosures herein referred to)

Do we take this double assault on me as a warning of something a lot more serious to come? We sure do. I had intended starting the draft of Declan’s application to the European Court of Human Rights today (for his finishing touch). Now Declan has instructed me to finish off the draft of his introductory letter to the registrar of the court instead. Because Monday is a bank holiday, Declan wants this letter ready for posting first thing on Tuesday morning.

I will be claiming that the termination of our unemployment benefit on 27 September - because Declan did not "sign on" two days before he was due to do so on 29 September - is in violation, among others, of Article 3 (the prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment) of the European Convention on Human Rights. Maybe Article 3 explains not only the Metropolitan Police’s delay in taking Declan’s statement, but their reticence in giving him a copy of this statement.