Please be careful in carlton.

I live and work in carlton I'm not trashing the suburb as a whole, I've never had any issues up until last month when someone who was camping outside our cafe started urinating and doing his business in the lane which was distributing our customers, he would also randomly abuse people if they didn't give him money but in general if he wasnt drunk he seemed ok and who doesn't have empathy for people in this situation.

About a week ago he came into the cafe and asked if we could give him $10 to get shoes because he had a job interview and needed to look presentable it honestly seemed like a genuine request, I thought my boss would say yes but he didn't because he told me he would keep coming back which I thought was a bit unfair so when I finished work I went to ask the guy what size he needed and i said I would bring him back the shoes and something to eat, he didn't want to walk around with me so I decided to meet him at the gardens just before 6pm, when I got there I couldn't find him so I walked around and decided to wait 15 mins, worst decision of my life it was almost dark I should of listened to my gut but eventually he came staggering out of the gardens and asked me if I could help him find his dog, we ended up down near the pond with the sprinkler things where out of nowhere he has hit me straight across the face with a log, he then sat on my chest and punched me repeatedly in the face while screaming things I couldn't even comprehend, he's then attempted to push me into the water and hold me under it wasn't that deep so he's failed to think that through, Im at this point screaming to the point I felt nothing was even coming out it honestly felt like time stopped, I kicked him in the lower area as he had me on the muddy ground still trying to get my head under water, at this point I thought I was gonna die if someone didn't come, all I heard was yelling and screaming towards us and he got off me and ran off towards the exhibition building, I fainted and woke up in an ambulance, was seen pretty quickly at the royal but after 8 hours I just checked myself out.

I've made a report to police who within 24 hours contacted me explaining the person was having a mental episode, they wouldn't elaborate nor tell me any details about this person nor the motivation only that it wasn't a sexually driven crime and he has Prior history of this type of behaviour the only helpful info is that he isn't in the community at this point but when released I won't be notified, I questioned the police officer who rang me who said and I quote ' if this happened to you randomly and say I attacked you, I could be facing attempted murder chargers' but because this person falls under mental health orders and other stuff I obviously don't understand he just gets locked up in a community hospital? Like wtf is wrong with the world, this man stole my dignity away from me I haven't been able to go to work, eat properly sleep more than 2 hours without waking up crying or shaking, I've had constant thoughts of suicide, I can't afford to buy food for my dog nor myself cause i haven't been to work, I've missed my friends comedy debut that we planned for over 2 years (brimbank comedy festival shoutout) I've never felt so alone and hated the world at the same time as at this point.

Never trust anyone off the street especially if you are female and they are male.