In reply to Goucho:
Wow. You can rely on UKC for some varied viewpoints.
For what (little) it's worth - I read the OP yesterday and started typing a reply on my phone, which then crashed. Following a fairly long shift which, as usual, featured the feral behaviour of violent people I thought I would repeat my response to the initial post.
The circs as I see them were :-
Hardman litters and then is verbally aggressive and abusive to Mrs. G.
Mrs. G responds - perhaps inappropriately, however hardman did invite a response by asking a question.
Hardman continues to be verbally aggressive and abusive.
Mrs. G. agress to his request to stop and pull over.
Hardman is invited by Mr G not to get involved.
Hardman chooses to ignore that advice and continues to be verbally aggressive and abusive.
Hardman repeatedly makes threats of violence to both Mr and Mrs. G.
Mrs. G responds to the perceived threat of a large violent and aggressive male who is repeatedly threatening to cause physical harm to both herself and Mr G, and indeed has apparently alighted from his vehicle in order to do so, by striking - either pre-emptively or in response to an attempt by the hardman. Self defence - no offences.
1)Arrest Hardman for public order.
2)Look to charge with littering, public order, and if possible any breaches to the terms of conditions of any release on a tag (it's not clear if that was being worn by the hardman or his mate)
3)Strong words of advice to Mrs. G
There is no legal obligation to back down to aggressive and abusive bullies. However life is not a movie and aggressive and abusive bullies can also be extremely violent fighters who are not averse to using weapons, so challenging them isn't advisable.