A gay man was the victim of an alleged hate crime after a night out at Heaven nightclub in Charing Cross, London.
Content warning: This story may include topics that could make some readers feel uncomfortable.
Harry Batt, a 21-year-old student, told ITV News he was waiting for the bus home when a woman reportedly subjected him to verbal homophobic abuse.
This quickly escalated into physical violence, as she allegedly punched him in the back of the head which left him bleeding due to the ring she was wearing cutting him.
“Some girl out of nowhere came up to me and starts hurling homophobic slurs directed towards me and getting aggressive,” he explained to ITV News London.
He added that after a “scuffle” and friends trying to “pull her away” the woman swiftly fled the scene.
Harry stated: “I called 101 requesting an update and they contacted me through Twitter as well and said I’d been assigned an investigating officer who would be in touch in due course.”
i don’t wish to scare anyone, but unfortunately last night i fell myself victim to a homophobic attack whilst waiting for a bus home outside heaven nightclub in london. a girl came up to me and started throwing homophobic verbal assaults at me unprovoked, which I said to her she pic.twitter.com/btNK5uc88B
— harry (@_hxrrybxtt) February 12, 2022
According to the Met Police, CCTV is currently under review and officers are working with British Transport Police to find the woman in question.
“We have refreshed our overall approach to tackling hate crime in order to provide better support to victims, to enable a stronger response towards offenders of hate crime and to improve accessibility of our service to Londoners across all communities,” a statement from the Met said.
“We have continued to improve our proactive and reactive work in order to support the LGBT+ community.
“Specifically, the Met’s 125 volunteer LGBT+ advisers link in directly with the community to listen to concerns, feed directly back in to the service and encourage reporting of crime.”
Harry shared details of his alleged ordeal in a Twitter thread where he said he was “posting this for awareness.”
“I want everyone to be aware that the LGBTQ+ community still do not have equality in 2022, and to not be complacent, as there are still so many people out there who site to inflict hate upon us simply for being who we are,” he told followers.
Galop is an LGBTQ+ charity there for those who have experienced abuse or have been the victim of a hate crime. They can be contacted Monday to Friday from 10am-4pm on 0207 7042040 or at HateCrime@galop.org.uk. You can find out more about them here.
Latest
