15-year-old beaten in homophobic attack

A teenager was violently attacked in St Andrews, Scotland, after being subjected to homophobic harassment on a bus last Wednesday. Speaking to the Courier, the boy’s mother said her son was verbally abused on public transport, so he decided to get off the bus. However, the three perpetrators followed him off the bus and attacked him when his back was turned.

His mum said: “There were three of them, they attacked him from behind, he fell on the ground and hit his head. They punched him in the face and started kicking him on the ground.” She described the incident as “really scary”, adding: “My son came from an environment where we never had a closet for him to come out of, we were always very open and understanding…I think that, if anything, that made me think: ‘are these people telling my son that he should be in the closet?’”

The boy did not need to be hospitalised for his injuries and is now recovering. Police have confirmed that the attack is being investigated and treated as a hate crime. The assault comes amid a rise in anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes across the UK, with incident rates increasing by 9% between March 2020 and March 2021. The prevalence of homophobic hate crimes rose by 7% in total.