In a rather shocking statement on life in the north UK City of Liverpool, a 14 year old boy admitted taking part in a violent homophobic attack on a gay student, last year.
This violent teen and up to six others attacked a 19 year old gay student in November last year in Liverpool's city centre. The group of boys, followed the student for a while up Lord Street in the city centre, before punching him from behind. He was repeatedly punched in the face and was left with cuts, bruises and a broken nose.
Anti-gay insults and abuse was shouted at the student, who was targeted and attacked by the group for wearing 'flamboyant' clothes.
The youth, who can not be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty at Liverpool magistrates court to attacking the student, and was given a nine month referral order to attend the youth offender service and ordered to pay £200 court costs. He was convicted of actual bodily harm, rather than a more serious aggravated offence, as it could not be proven he taunted the victim about his sexuality.
The student, who attended the court case, told local newspaper, The Echo: “I knew little would be done against him because of his age. “But hopefully this sentence will prevent him doing certain things with his life and he’ll learn this isn’t the way to behave.”
The local police have made great inroads with the local gay community in recent years, in an effort to make the streets safer for gay people, Sgt Steve Bentley, from Merseyside Police, told the paper: “This was a particularly nasty assault and what made it even more shocking was the young age of the attacker. We are committed to tackling hate crime and will take robust action against offenders who commit such crimes, seeking to bring those people to justice.”
Jason Shaw
Jason's slice of quiet English life can be found at The Seafront Diaries!
© 2010 Copyright Jason Shaw
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