A couple of week's ago, Michele Hanson, one of our regular contributors, reflected on the consequences of confronting yobbos in public. It struck a resounding chord with Maggie Gee. She talks about how she reacted in a similar way when lads on motor bikes behaved in an anti-social manner... Maggie lives on a well-designed estate. The houses face a communal grass area, making it a safe place for children to play. That is, until some young lads began to use it for racing around on their trial bikes paying scant regard to the toddlers and children. Efforts to catch the bikers by police and residents were hampered by the design of the estate which prevented cars from travelling fast enough to head off the youths. When one of the boys' bikes broke down in front of Maggie's house, she seized her chance, and told him very firmly, "You're endangering life. Look at the children!" In spite of being caught red-handed, on a motorbike, on a footpath with no direct access to a road, the boy refused to accept that he was doing anything wrong. Finally, in the face of constant denial, an infuriated Maggie took action, "I thumped him! He looked up in total surpise. Then I did it again! Suddenly this 14 year old thug turned into an 8 year old snivelling brat, crying 'I'm going to tell my mum of you!"
Maggie, anticipating that the boy and his family would make a bee-line for the police station, got there first, telling a surprised officer, "I've come to report myself for an assault. I'm quite prepared to take the penalty. But," added Maggie, "for saving you the time and trouble of coming to find me, I want this boy's name and address. I'm going to take a private prosecution against him for offences under The Road Traffic Act - no licence, insurance, no L-plates, no helmet, driving a motor vehicle on a footpath..." At this point the policman saw where Maggie was heading, laughed and said, "I think we can get this up to about 13 charges!" Unstoppable, Maggie added, "And I want to take out a prosecution against the parents for aiding and abetting him by supplying the bike."
Later that week, Maggie returned to police station. Sure enough, the boy and his parents and his granny had turned up furious that this woman had assaulted their son. The inspector was ready. He told them he'd been waiting for them to come and sign the papers against Maggie, and then the whole thing would proceed. If they prosecuted Maggie, she would take out the prosecution against the son. It floored them. Ten minutes later, the family decided they weren't going to proceed with the case for assault.
"I won a terrific victory," concludes Maggie. "The motorcyles stopped coming past my house!"
