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Hi Alan.I think what you say makes a lot of sense and indeed it would be a sad day if an adult could not approach or touch a child without being accused of Assault. However on the other hand I can understand that this parent is very upset and beleives that their child has been Assaulted.I think therefore that this matter is best left to the Police and really in the interest of justice has no place on a public web site, as for the orignal posters question:Is This Assault this can only be answered by the courts and quite how they would decide this is beyond me given the law on Assault.Which is:There is a fundamental and incontestable principle that every person’s body is inviolate. It has long been established that any touching of another person, however slight, may amount to a battery. So Holt CJ held in 1704 that ‘the least touching of another in anger is a battery’: see Cole v Turner 6 Mod Rep 149, 90 ER 958. In Wilson v Pringle [1986] EWCA Civ 6 (26 March 1986) it was held that for a battery the “touching must be proved to be a hostile touching”.Croom-Johnson LJ said: “Hostility cannot be equated with ill-will or malevolence. It cannot be governed by the obvious intention shown in acts like punching, stabbing or shooting. It cannot be solely governed by an expressed intention, although that may be strong evidence. But the element of hostility, in the sense in which it is now to be considered, must be a question of fact for the tribunal of fact. It may be imported from the circumstances. Take the example of the police officer in Collins v Wilcock. She touched the woman deliberately, but without an intention to do more than restrain her temporarily. Nevertheless, she was acting unlawfully and in that way was acting with hostility.” The term ‘unlawful’ as applied to assault in certain contexts may mean no more than ‘without consent’. In criminal law, the term "common assault" covers two separate offences "assault" and "battery" which were formerly contrary to Common Law but are now said to be statutory offences contrary to section 39 Criminal Justice Act 1988: an "assault" is any act by which a person intentionally or recklessly causes another to apprehend immediate unlawful violence; a "battery" is any act by which a person intentionally or recklessly applies unlawful force to another. The term “assault” is sometimes used e.g. in section 47 Offences Against the Person Act 1861 (Assault occasioning actual bodily harm). Common assault is usually a summary offence but under section 40 Criminal Justice Act 1988 it can be included as an additional charge on an indictment. Assault: there must be an act See: (Director of Public Prosecutions v Santa-Bermudez [2003] EWHC 2908 (Admin)) accompanied by a hostile intent calculated to cause apprehension in the mind of the victim. Where the hostile intent is not present, there will be no assault (See: Lamb R v [1967 2 QB 981 (22 June 1967) and Archbold 19-166) unless it is proved that the defendant was reckless as to whether the complainant would apprehend immediate and unlawful violence.

Robert Ayres ● 5986d

hi i am the mother of the 9 year old girl and the auntie of the 8 year old boy that is involved in the tescos abuse i would like to say well done simon for putting this forum up at least you have the guts to do it to warn others anyway the children are deffinetly not lying i was told by tescos they have cctv all over the shop in and out now they are telling the police they dont have cctv of were the assult happend to be honest with you all i think they are trying to save themselfs as if it got out not many people would go in there anymore the security guard admitted what he did to the kids he had his hand on the top of my daughters thigh near her privates aswell as pulled on her leg and he poked her 2 times and he also pulled and poked my nephew and pulled his arm in my mind that is abuse  the police are useless as they wont do nothing and nor will tescos i no longer go in there myself and my daughter is a very brave girl so is my nephew for telling us also my daughter is very frightend at the moment she sleeps next to me at night and she wont go sleep with out me in the room and she has to have the light on she is now waking nearky every night with bad dreams she also has to help me lock my flat up as she thinks the man is comming for her she will not go tescos with me anymore and when we go out she wont go away from me she is going to be having counselling very soon because of all this please dont sit there saying anything about it untill you have facts also dont say this is because simon has some sort of problem with tescos i dont want anyone arguing about this anymore i am already stressed out and ill cause of all this and what my child is going through i am getting no sleep at night i havent since it happend so please will you all leave simon alone and if you got nothing nice to say then dont comment thanks

Karen Cousins ● 5987d