There is a bizarre case involving a well-known race jockey, Paul Quinn, in England who urinated on woman after struggling with her for possession of her cell phone. Quinn was drunk and wanted to make a call. When the woman resisted, he grappled with her and then inexplicably urinated on her. However, it was not the act (which even celebrities have been known to do in close quarters) but the charge that caught my attention: sexual assault.

The assault charge is clearly understandable and the urination element adds to the need for prosecution. However, Quinn, 35, was originally charged with sexual assault.

Indeed, he was charged with two sexual assault and pleaded guilty to one of the charges.

The prosecutor, Christine Egerton, emphasized that he embarrassed his victim even if he did not do particularly serious physical injury in the struggle. This “gratuitous degradation of this woman which left her humiliated” causing “emotional injuries.”

Quinn avoided jail time with the plea and was given a 12-month community order and 50 hours unpaid work with a £250 fine for o his victim. Again, that does not sound like sexual assault, which in the United States would trigger jail time and a lifetime of reporting as a sexual offender.

Perhaps one of our English regulars can explain why this amounts to sexual rather than simple assault.

Source: Northern Echo