ABSTRACT
Lord Goddard CJ: ... Before you can find that a man has been guilty of an indecent assault, you have to find that he was guilty of an assault, for an indecent assault is an assault accompanied by indecency, and, if it could be shown here that the respondent had done anything towards this child which, by any fair use of language could be called compulsion, or had acted, as I have said in other cases, in a hostile manner towards her – that is, with a threat or a gesture which could be taken as a threat, or by pulling a reluctant child towards him – that would, undoubtedly, be assault, and, if it was accompanied by an act of indecency, it would be an indecent assault.
