Cyclist left shaken after being pelted with cement on Edinburgh bike path

To cause annoyance or to damage the victim's clothes and bicycle? The quote above says "harm" but I believe the a more accurate statement is that assault has to cause "injury or fear of injury".  (https://crime.scot/assault/) 

Now I can only imagine that having cement thrown at you is incredibly unpleaseant, but would you expect it to "injure" you? I'm not sure exactly what the threshold for "injury" in Scots law is, but I imagine it's comparable to "Bodily Harm" in English law, which the CPS define as "any hurt calculated to interfere with the health or comfort of the victim: such hurt need not be permanent, but must be more than transient and trifling". https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/offences-against-person-incorporat...

Reading the twitter thread, there is a suggestion that the chemicals in it may cause harm.

"That's pretty awful and potentially a great deal more hazardous than is obvious, cement is not a product to get anywhere near skin or face."

"Concrete or mortar dosn't matter it still contains cement which is caustic and can easily cause chemical burns if it gets on skin when wet... Which actually makes this assault fall under the same category as the acid attacks"

I'm not a chemist though

Fair enough - I didn't realise cement was quite so dangerous!

I once spent all day filling in a shed base with concrete. Must have been a couple of cubic meters of the stuff as it was on a steep slope.  Though I was wearing gloves and a long sleeve shirt my wrists would get bits on them as I shoveled cement into the mixer.   I didn't notice until last thing at night.  I had really painful burns across my wrists for 6 weeks and it took 3 months for the skin inflammation to die down. 
on a professional site not having full PPE when messing with concrete/cement will get you fired. 

OnYerBike wrote:

To cause annoyance or to damage the victim's clothes and bicycle? The quote above says "harm" but I believe the a more accurate statement is that assault has to cause "injury or fear of injury".  (https://crime.scot/assault/) 

Now I can only imagine that having cement thrown at you is incredibly unpleaseant, but would you expect it to "injure" you? I'm not sure exactly what the threshold for "injury" in Scots law is, but I imagine it's comparable to "Bodily Harm" in English law, which the CPS define as "any hurt calculated to interfere with the health or comfort of the victim: such hurt need not be permanent, but must be more than transient and trifling". https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/offences-against-person-incorporat...

From https://www.healthline.com/health/concrete-burns

Quote:

When you add water to cement powder, a molecule called calcium oxide turns into calcium hydroxide. When this happens, it raises the pH of cement.

The pH scale is a measure of how acidic or basic a substance is on a scale of 1 to 14. A pH of 1 means it’s a strong acid, a pH of 7 means it’s neutral, and a pH of 14 means it’s a strong base. The natural pH of skin, on average, is 4.7. Substances on the high or low end of the scale can cause chemical burns that damage your skin.

Chemicals in wet cement react with sweat and water molecules in your skin and produce ions made of an oxygen and hydrogen molecule. These molecules dissolve proteins and collagen fibers. They also break down fats and dehydrate cells.

The longer wet cement touches your skin, the longer it reacts with water molecules and the worse your burn becomes. In an older 2007 study, researchers reviewed cases of cement burn injuries at St James’s Hospital in Dublin, Ireland between the years 1996 to 2005. They found that the average time of exposure for people admitted to the burn unit was 60 minutes.

Feel free to search for cement burn pictures - they look horrific though they're usually associated with long exposure times. It's perfectly feasible that some cement gets caught in John's collar which could then lead to significant discomfort. In terms of intent, throwing significantly caustic substances is surely an intent to cause harm.

Wet cement contains calcium hydroxide which can cause serious burns on unprotected skin, up to a level needing skin grafts to repair them. Anyone used to working with cement would know this; on my inglorious forays into building site work when I was a student even the most blase, health and safety's all bollocks merchants would warn you to be careful to keep covered up. Given that the assailant would have been taught this on his training it should definitely be regarded as an attempt to injure, in my opinion.

I agree, I am unsure if Scotland is covered by the Health and Safety executive or if it is just E&W, but this incident needs drawing to their attention. Cement is a hazadous material and will come with a COSSH data sheet, the assailant would be aware if this and throwing the cement could potentially have entered his eyes should he have turned. The police need to reconsider their charge and place it back to one of assault.

Little thought experiment.

Throw a shovel full of cement at a police office, would you expect to be charged with vandalism?

They'd never make it stick. You can't build a case on that.

ktache wrote:

Throw a shovel full of cement at a police office, would you expect to be charged with vandalism?

I don't know, but I do know what you're charged with if you throw Domestos over a constable:

Bleach of the police.

eburtthebike wrote:

ktache wrote:

Throw a shovel full of cement at a police office, would you expect to be charged with vandalism?

I don't know, but I do know what you're charged with if you throw Domestos over a constable:

Bleach of the police.

A tip of the helmet to you!  Although I just can't see how the concepts of "police" and "whitewashing" could sit together.

Could claim that he was fearful this was a mafia hit.  Aren't they big on covering folks in concrete?

OnYerBike wrote:

To cause annoyance or to damage the victim's clothes and bicycle? The quote above says "harm" but I believe the a more accurate statement is that assault has to cause "injury or fear of injury".  (https://crime.scot/assault/) 

Now I can only imagine that having cement thrown at you is incredibly unpleaseant, but would you expect it to "injure" you? I'm not sure exactly what the threshold for "injury" in Scots law is, but I imagine it's comparable to "Bodily Harm" in English law, which the CPS define as "any hurt calculated to interfere with the health or comfort of the victim: such hurt need not be permanent, but must be more than transient and trifling". https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/offences-against-person-incorporat...

depends if any ends up going down his neck, instead of just on the bck of his clothes

https://www.healthline.com/health/concrete-burns#how-to-treat-concrete-b...

Concrete is pretty dangerous stuff and not to be taken lightly around exposed skin