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Thursday 29 July 2010

Punched in the face just for being gay!

Another week and another unprovoked homophobic attack.

This time in Perth, Scotland.

Apparently the 30-year-old man, who was with his partner at the time, required first aid treatment by Twa Tams bar staff after the attack where he was punched at least three times in the face by the offender in his mid-30s.

The Perthshire Advertiser reports:
Bar manager Zoe Cooper said security staff did not witness the unprovoked attack but responded quickly, escorting the assailant outside, who then left the scene before police arrived.

Staff and patrons have been interviewed by police investigating the 9pm assault, which was captured on the pub’s CCTV cameras, with footage now being scrutinised by officers.

“It was such an aggressive attack, just horrible, and over in seconds,” said Ms Cooper, who was not on duty but viewed the footage yesterday with police.
The victim, who suffered bruising and was in shock after being punched, was a regular at the pub along with his partner.

On CCTV footage, the victim is seen seated at a table in the pub chatting to friends when a shaven-headed man approaches their table.
“Apparently he started talking about football and when (the victim) said he’s not interested in football, that’s when he said, ‘are you gay?’ which is just so shocking,” said Ms Cooper.
A Tayside Police spokesman said the ugly assault was totally unprovoked, with the offender calling the victim a “f***ing poof” before punching him in the face at least three times.

“We are treating this homophobic incident very seriously and are appealing to anyone who was at the pub or who may be able to assist us in identifying this offender to contact us,” he said.

The suspect, not believed to be a regular at the Twa Tams, was described as being 6ft tall with a medium build and shaved head and at the time of the attack he was wearing a white polo shirt, cargo pants and trainers.

Let us hope that the CCTV pictures are of a good enough quality that the pictures can be used to put away this thug for this unprovoked and mindless attack.

I hope the victim and his partner are able to put this behind them and carry on without it affecting their lives too much.

And finally, if anyone has any information please call Tayside Police on 0300 111 2222, they also have a very helpful page on their website about hate crime and what you should do, visit it here.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It's really coming to something when people are "out and proud" Liberal Democrats.

Pretty much no one cares who's gay and who isn't any more, but being vilified for being a Lib Dem is certainly a social stigma that we need to address. Good on you for having the courage to declare publicly. Shout it from the rooftops - I'm an orange and I agree with Nick!!!

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