A Sydney bar manager has explained her relief after going through a traumatic court case.
Annabel Bassil was working at a pub in the Sutherland Shire last year when a 41-year-old man slapped her bum as she walked past him. She was taken aback by the gross misconduct, and the man said it was okay because he has a wife and kids.
The 22-year-old ended up getting the man charged with common assault and described the court process 'exhausting'.
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She's opened up about her experience in a lengthy Facebook post, which detailed how the slap ended up affecting her mental health.
"This event had a knock on affect on me questioning my worth and caused my mental health to deteriorate, as well as it leading me to really dislike working in a pub which was all I had done since I was 17," she wrote.
"It also caused me to imagine this guys face wherever I went and I generally felt uncomfortable in my work place."
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Annabel explained how the day after the assault, the man's wife came into the pub to tell her not to follow it up because he was just having fun. But she decided to pursue it because she wanted to send a message that this type of behaviour isn't okay.
The young Aussie said she had plenty of people tell her to drop the case and let the issue go.
She continued: "I had a number of males around me imply that they thought I was over reacting and wasting my time which only made this situation more overwhelming.
"I am very grateful for the important male figures in my life, for being supportive and assuring me that what this customer did was wrong. At the end of the day, no one has the right to tell me how I should feel or react, and just because this could have been worse, it was still wrong."
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The incident was captured on CCTV and was used in court to implicate the man. Annabel says the customer was 'clearly remorseful' about the incident.
"He was clearly remorseful about this spur of the moment action, and for him it has cost him a year of lawyers fees, as well as the embarrassment of his own behaviour," she wrote. "From the start, I wasn't aiming for a specific outcome for him, as long as he was found guilty and he realised it was wrong, which I hope he now understands."
She hopes her 'very intense experience' serves as a message to everyone that seemingly innocuous incidents can have a serious knock-on effect.
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The customer plead guilty to common assault in a court on August 13 however no conviction was recorded.
Annabel finished her post with this message to everyone who deals with hospitality workers: "If a girl smiles at you, pours you a beer or tells you to 'have a good day', this does not mean she wants your number, to sleep with you or even engage in a conversation with you and it absolutely in no way means that you can touch her."
Featured Image Credit: Annabel Bassil/InstagramTopics: World News