Trigger warning: This post contains a graphic image and may be distressing for some readers.
This is what Mary Brandon looked like prior to attending a famous festival on London on Monday:
And this distressing picture shows the British woman’s bloodied and swollen face afterwards:
The image is going viral, after the Leeds student took to Facebook to recount a frightening assault at Notting Hill Carnival that left her bruised and in pain.
Ms Brandon shared details of the horrifying attack in a post on Tuesday, saying she spent nine hours in the emergency ward after a male festival-goer groped her and became violent.
“At Notting Hill Carnival yesterday a man in the crowd grabbed my arse. When I told him not to, he did it again,” she wrote.
“I pushed him away, exercising my right to tell a man to stop touching my body without my permission, so he took a swing at me and punched me in the face,” she said, as reported by The Standard.
“I spent 9 hours in A&E because of this coward.”
Ms Brandon said she was “so pissed off” that the perpetrator “thought it was OK to hit me” because she’d asked him to back off.
“A woman should be able to leave the house without fear of being sexually assaulted,” she said. “And she should be able to defend herself without being put in hospital.”
“Maybe it’d be safer to just ignore it when someone invades your space and body. But I can honestly say I will always stand up to someone who thinks they can get away with this behaviour,” she said.
“If you think it is OK then don’t come to carnival next year. You’re not welcome there or anywhere in our society.”
Brava, Mary Brandon.
We couldn’t agree more.
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Top Comments
Reminder on how to be a human being for those who have forgotten:
1. Empathise - "OMG that's terrible! That must've been so 'insert how you think they felt and ponder how YOU'D feel if you were in that situation'
2. Reinforce the most important fact to focus on - "I'm so glad you survived"
3. Support - they are already feeling fragile and damaged and need our love and compassion
4. Learn from the situation - for YOURSELF, and only the survivor if they want it and ask for it.
I'm sure at core, many of the heartless comments made have seeds of 'desire to help' contained within them. But I think you'll find that if you follow this 4 step approach, by the time you get to the stage where you can tell them what an idiot they were for doing 'X' instead of 'Y'; you might find that your opinion is now irrelevant - that you've connected emotionally with the other person and your concern for them now outweighs your need to be right. That's the 'being' part of human and, sincerely, here's hoping you can join us soon.
I can't believe all the people saying she shouldn't have pushed him away (because that is apparently escalating the violence unnecessarily - wtf??) when the overwhelming response to the woman who was assaulted on the plane, who froze, was that she should have pushed him away!!
The difference with the plane incident is the woman managed to switch on her smartphone and record her own commentts as the assaults were happening. I dont doubt she was molested but to be able to TWICE have her legs lifted onto his lap and not react either time is a tad confusing.