My assaulter walks free, then Spurs host Chris Brown

Owning a Spurs season ticket was once a dream of mine but that is now muddied

- Eve De Haan

A few months ago I was assaulted on an overground train by a Brentford fan after a home win at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. The British Transport Police were rapid in their response, unsuccessfully but immediately halting a Victoria line train to find him, before arresting him the next week on his own way to his team's home match. Over a few months of back and forth updates with the BTP the case was passed to the Crown Prosecution Service.

This Saturday at a sunny pub with my dad, among chatter about Tottenham's woes this season while an FA Cup tie played out on the TV screens I got an unexpected call from BTP for a final update. The CPS had decided there was not enough evidence to secure a conviction against the individual.

Of course I wasn't naive enough to think this wasn't a probable outcome. The train was disgustingly packed and the case officer had already explained the issue with securing usable footage from the train or even the platform. The officer subsequently explained that the footage recorded by the assaulter's sons as they filmed the incident in bouts of laughter was not looked at because they are not the individuals under arrest.