A man who was brutally attacked and bitten and spat on while walking home from a gay bar says he is afraid to return to the city but is determined to regain his confidence.
Lewis North, 32, was walking home from New Foresters in Nottingham and was passing through the Victoria Center when he came across a lone man at around 2.30am on Sunday morning. “I could see someone very far in front of me, and this person was trying to hide, but I didn’t really know what they were doing,” he told Yahoo News.
He said that after he walked past the pillars at the mall, a man jumped on him and “tried to scare” him. “He says he’s going to stab me. He’s going to kill me. He’s going to beat me because I’m gay. He tells me I shouldn’t be allowed to go out, I shouldn’t be allowed to walk on the street,” says North.
North, who is originally from North Lincolnshire, said after replying “fuck you” he walked outside the building onto the forecourt when the man began punching him. He added: “I go straight to the ground and he starts beating the hell out of me and I’m like, what’s going on here?”
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North said he shouted for help but there was no one to intervene, but he later had the opportunity to fight back and managed to pin the attacker to the ground. During the struggle, he bit off one of the man’s ears and spat on it, he said.
At one point during the fight, the attacker took his watch and threw it on the road in the hope that it would hit a car and attract someone’s attention, but that didn’t work, North said. With no sign of the attacker backing down, North said he felt “so overwhelmed” that he collapsed to the ground.
He says the sharp fall triggered his Apple Watch to alert emergency services, close friends and family that he had fallen, and to call 999 from his phone. North, who runs his own architecture, interior design and interior design department, recalls the man continuing to punch him, calling him a “f*ck” and a “f*ck boy” and asking if it was acceptable to be gay, and his landscape design job .
She adds: “It actually gets to a point where I can’t take anything anymore and that’s when they give up and I think that’s where I get most of my facial injuries.”
North, who had cuts on his head and a swollen face, said he later saw blue lights in the distance and remembered his attacker getting away from him. He says that after he turned the corner and told police what happened and said “this guy needs to be arrested,” an officer responded, “You don’t need to tell me how to do my job, I know what I’m doing.”
“’I’m sorry, what happened?’ I thought. “I’m mauled like a dog here and I’m asking you for safety and you’re pushing me away,” North recalls. He says he then walked towards the New Foresters and spoke to his friends and security at the entrance when the police caught up with them. He approached him and told them they would take a witness statement the next morning.
‘I’m determined to get myself back there’
North said he went to Lord Roberts, a gay-friendly bar in the city, on Tuesday and the atmosphere between him and his friends changed.
“I was really scared. “I had to change the way I normally get there and I was scared for one of my friends who I hadn’t heard from,” he adds. “Perceptions have changed a bit and group dynamics have changed. Firstly, they all make sure I’m okay, but secondly, they talk about safety in numbers, traveling together and sharing locations on our phones.
“It’s pretty scary to think we have to do this in 2024. We’ve just started the year and we’re already seeing hate crimes against our community.”
North said she has felt emotionally fragile since the attack and has been staying at a friend’s house to avoid being home alone at night. But even though it still felt “a little scary,” he says he was determined not to let the ordeal stop him from spending a night on the town.
“I need to put myself out there. If I don’t it’s going to get worse,” he adds. “I’m going to get back on the horse and start riding again. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, so I’m coming out of this a lot more positive.”
Confirming that officers are treating the incident as a hate crime, Chief Inspector James Walker of Nottinghamshire Police told Yahoo News UK: “We take all allegations of violence and hate crime very seriously and officers were quick to respond to the attack on Milton Street on January 7. intervened somehow. 2.35 am.
“The 32-year-old victim was supported by police officers at the scene after being punched in the face. We arrested a 22-year-old man for ABH. We are currently treating this as a hate crime. “Investigations are ongoing and we continue to support the victim.”
Homophobic attacks have increased significantly in the last decade
Homophobic attacks have been increasing in recent years. According to Home Office figures, sexual orientation-related hate crimes fell by 6% to 24,102 crimes in the year ending March 2023, while transgender hate crimes increased by 11% to 4,732 crimes.
However, the chart below, provided by Statista, shows how crimes against people because of their sexual orientation have increased significantly since 2014, with the small decline in the first category actually being a price for the trend.
Commenting on the overall increase at the end of last year, Stonewall External Affairs Director Robbie de Santos said: “Political leaders did not act seriously enough or quickly enough. Instead, many fill the public sphere with toxic language that dehumanizes LGBTQ+ people and justifies violence. The UK Government has failed to implement any strategy that responds to its own statistics and reporting.
“We need strong, determined leadership that moves away from divisive distractions and instead addresses the real problems of people in this country. We should not be treated like second-class citizens.”