Alexander Paton and his girlfriend confronted the group.
A Norwich man has been left with a fractured ankle after he and his girlfriend confronted a group of homophobes. Alexander Paton and his girlfriend, Grace McCourt, had been walking with friends on the Prince of Wales Road when the incident occurred.
Speaking to the Eastern Daily Press, Grace said that the group started making “foul, homophobic comments” toward their friends, so she and Alexander went to intervene. “We almost let it slide but neither Alex nor me could let it go so he calmly approached them,” she said.
“He let them know that what they were saying isn’t okay. He didn’t touch them, he didn’t swear, he didn’t call them names.
“These people physically attacked him and now Alex has a badly broken ankle.”
Alexander added: “It’s unfortunate. My leg is in a brace and it is a really bad break of the ankle itself.
“So this is what you get for verbally standing up to homophobes. We are in contact with the police and hope to find out who did this.
“Be careful, people, but never stop standing up for those who need it.”
A spokesperson for the Norfolk constabularly refused to comment due to the ongoing nature of the investgiation. But they said: “If any hate crime or assault is reported to us we take that very seriously and it will be investigated.
“Any crime is investigated thoroughly but we really take hate crime seriously and encourage people reporting it.”
Anyone who witnessed the attack or who has information should contact Norfolk Police on 101 quoting crime reference 36/88900/19.
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