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The night before I was attacked by two guys who were driving drunk, I was told by the Police that they might have to arrest me if people called about my appearance again. I like to be in public dressed like my profile image, I'm not exactly hurting anyone, and I'm not wearing anything offensive so why do they have an issue with it?
Anyways, I had a 2.6 inch folding and non-locking pocket knife in my possession when I was attacked. I was on the ground after being repeatedly punched in the face and back of the head by these two thugs, and pushed into a brick wall then my head stomped on. I had the knife hidden under my hand since it fell onto the ground in front of me. I thought of three options: Run for my phone which they threw down the street, pretend to be knocked out, or use the knife to defend myself. I chose option two, since it felt the most logical. They soon stopped and looked away, so I took the opportunity to get up and run.
I'm still pissed off that I didn't get their licence plate number, but in my head I thought "there's at least three CCTV cameras since we're in the town centre, surely the Police will find them." I was stupid to think this, the Police eventually told me after a long wait that there was no CCTV footage to view. I then called up and visited the Asda store I was attacked outside to ask about the CCTV and the Police. They told me the Police never contacted them (two different people told me this), and that they were also waiting for a week to show the police footage of someone stealing someone's handbag.
When they arrested me for having the knife they took my body armour and my belt, and some other items. Two male officers pulled up while I was in the police car and they were laughing at me. My items all got ruined by mold since they were put in a plastic bag. I was speed walking around my town for at least 2 hours before this, so you can imagine how wet the armour got from sweat. It makes me think these Police never graduated high school, or at least skipped science lessons.
I was stuck in a cold cell for 12 hours, interrogated, then let out 20 minutes before I had to be at work. I didn't have chance to shower or change clothes, so I went to work in jail clothes with bruises all over my face, and since I had no belt my pants were falling down... The Police REALLY wanted to embarrass me.
They charged me with "possession of an offensive weapon", and they took their time to "investigate". Shortly after I called the officer PC Prince who was in charge of my case and expressed my anger at them ruining my body armour and other items they sent me a letter to attend Magistrates' Court. I was given legal aid and had a different solicitor each time, and they didn't really seem too interested in helping, they said barely anything and didn't go into detail about anything, along with calling the prosecutor his friend.
The prosecutor was smirking and giving me dirty looks all throughout this hearing. The Magistrates didn't seem interested in what I was saying, as before the hearing they kept asking me to repeat things, but not once after I started defending myself did they ask me to repeat anything I said.
The prosecutor lied about the law saying they only needed to show I had a weapon on me and nothing else, and my solicitor said nothing. They also brought up the fact that I play violent video games, and I had to explain how Overwatch works to a court where everything gets recorded... I told them how I'm a support main that enjoys saving my team and that shut them up pretty quickly.
They also took some survival knives from my bedroom and used them as evidence, calling them "hunting knives" even though they were marked as survival and one had a survival kit in the handle.
I was found guilty of possession of an offensive weapon, and given a fine of about £600 with a short suspended sentence. All of this because I had a knife, which was legal to have on me, while some guys attacked me. They didn't seem interested in prosecuting the actual violent thugs, but someone who chose not to be violent and didn't instigate anything. They thought I was a liar, and they didn't care about the law or what I said.
I appealed my sentence without the solicitors, and was in Crown Court the following year. This time, we had a judge and some magistrates presiding the case. The judge was very kind and seemed to be on my side from the beginning, it gave me a lot of hope. The prosecutor was trying to argue that because I said I was thinking about using the knife as a weapon I am guilty of the offence. But after a long discussion and me saying I thought I was going to die, but still refused to use the knife, the judge and magistrates decided to accept my appeal and reverse the conviction.
I'd like to say thanks to the staff at the Leeds Combined Court for being so much better than the wild west magistrates court. I'm still appalled that people have to go through this nonsense and made to look like criminals! My name was listed on a recent convictions page on a news website for a bit, no doubt it could've damaged my reputation. I've also been suffering from PTSD, anxiety and worse depression following these events. I've been robbed of justice because West Yorkshire Police felt like they had to punish me for being different, and the thugs who attacked me got away with no punishment and a story to laugh about.
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West Yorkshire Police tried to maliciously prosecute me