Finding a way to fight back

Londoners still coping with emotional scars from downtown beating One victim hopes to send message during trials

Published: December 07, 2011 1:14 a.m.

Last modified: December 07, 2011 1:16 a.m.

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Two Londoners have started a Facebook campaign aimed at turning a negative into a positive.

Jumped and beaten Aug. 20 near Richmond and York streets, Jacqui Gallant and Christopher Campbell are, in their own little way, trying to take back the night.

“When things happen to me in my life, I can’t help but try to rationalize why,” Gallant, 47, said. “The only thing I can find … to rationalize why (this happened) is because I’m the kind of person who’s going to speak about it.

“That’s my mission: Create more awareness.”

Asking for help and support in making downtown safer, the Facebook page is staged around today’s aggravated-assault trial for Nicole Whitehead, one of two people charged in the case.

Whitehead, 26, of London, was arrested a few weeks after Gallant told police she was forced to the ground, choked and bitten.

A Jan. 4 trial is scheduled for Marol Angou, 24, of London, the man accused of beating Campbell.

Angou was charged Sept. 20 in the assault that landed Campbell, 41, in the hospital with a
fractured cheekbone, a split upper lip and a black eye.

The goal, Gallant said yesterday, is to fill the courtroom for the trials.

“You kind of want to get as much support as you can,” she said. “The more people that come … the judge is going to look at this and say, ‘These people really do care, and they really do want these people off the street.’”

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