Notes

After a month spent back home in the UK I arrived back in Georgia and met my girlfriend at kutaisi airport, took taxi to our guesthouse, then went to town to celebrate New Years together. We watched fireworks on the white bridge then heard irakle charkviani music in the distance and followed until we got to a bar with very good live music. There was sat on a table drank a beer and enjoyed the music. We spoke with a lovely couple from California. As the night went on we were dancing, had another beer (in total only 2 or 3 beers, we were not drunk or tipsy at all), and spoke with many people in English and my broken Georgian. A man outside in the smoking area commented several times about my lip piercing. I told in Georgian that I like it and just left it at there. But he was not satisfied and clearly had a dislike towards me.

Time went on, this man got more drunk and more aggressive towards everyone, not just me. He left the bar. Hours passed and we stayed until the end. Then started walking home. As we crossed the white bridge he appeared from nowhere, accompanied by a friend. He grabbed my arm and said in Georgian that he wants two minutes with me alone. It quickly became clear he wanted to do something bad and we said no we are not interested, and he grabbed harder. As I pulled away he went for me. Several hard blows hit me to the ground. My girlfriend was screaming and shouting at me to run as she grabbed onto him with all her strength and begging him to stop. It’s worth mentioning that I am actually now actually registered blind in the UK and have retinitis pigmentosa which affects mostly my night vision, so I’m effectively blind at night and rely heavily on my girlfriends help

So I ran away but then got very worried about my girlfriend and shouted back at her. What followed is clearly on cctv. He caught up with me and I begged him to stop in Georgian and English and he beat me again and again. Most blows hit my head but he got my mouth, jaw and ear too. This went on until me girlfriend and his friend caught up to him. Then me and my girlfriend ran away. I was frantically trying to stop cars in the street. The first car didn’t care. It was a taxi with people and shrugged me off despite my pleas for help.

In the stress of the moment I couldn’t even remember the emergency number for Georgia and was calling 999, the number for UK, hoping it would redirect and it didn’t work. The next car stopped, it was 2 glovo drivers. I was breathing heavy and absolutely terrified. They dropped off food and then dropped us off back at our guesthouse. We gave them some money and then went up and locked the doors and put the bags against the door. I was in pain and we cried and then slept.

Next day we were processing everything and went to the police. We got cctv evidence but they said we couldn’t take it to crown court because I don’t have a clear memory of the mans face (because I couldn’t see in the dark bar and street). So we only filed an administrative case for verbal abuse only. I have a meeting with a lawyer on Monday because I’m sure we have enough to prosecute. Verbal abuse is only a min 2000 gel fine.