London Couple Attacked by Gang Wielding Board with Nails; Onlookers Did Nothing
A London couple were brutally attacked by a gang of young men who, they said, egged each other on until what started as slurs escalated into an assault with a board that had nails through it.
Onlookers who saw the attack unfold in broad daylight did nothing to help them, Yahoo News reported — and London police were slow to respond when the couple reported the assault.
Callum Griggs and his partner, Brad Balueta, were "walking past shops" on Oct. 1 "when they were targeted by a gang of six or seven youths who began to taunt them," the news account said.
Balueta told Yahoo News UK that he tried to avoid a confrontation, but the group, who seemed to be in their late teens or early twenties, were determined to harass the couple.
"I had spotted them and had put my head down," Balueta, 24, recounted. "I am aware of situations and hoped we could just walk past, but they began to fire homophobic slurs at us, calling us 'batty boys' and 'fags.'"
Balueta said that when Griggs "calmly asked them what they had said," one of the men responded that he knew where Griggs lives, and threatened to kill him.
"I am out and proud," Balueta said, but with the gang harassing them, "in all my life, I have never felt so scared. He clearly knew where my boyfriend lived, and was very aggressive."
Things didn't end there. The men in the gang "began to jeer each other on, and that one grabbed a wooden panel with nails in," the news account related.
"He started waving it around," Balueta said of the board-wielding man, "and near Callum's face."
"They seemed to feed off each other and got more aggressive."
Then the physical violence started.
Saying that the ordeal is now "a bit hazy," Balueta recounted that one of the men "went for Callum, he grabbed his shirt then another sucker-punched him in the back of the head."
"I was terrified," Balueta continued. "They were piling on to him, and it was three on one. They were punching and kicking him."
After several terrifying minutes the ordeal ended with the gang running away, laughing. One of the assailants called back at Griggs, "I've got your blood on my hands," Balueta recalled.
Plenty of onlookers watched as the attack, which took place just outside of a restaurant, unfolded — but no one came to the couple's aid. "So many people were staring but nobody came to help," Balueta told the news outlet. Only afterwards, when two women arrived on the scene and saw the men's condition, was any assistance offered. The women drove Balueta and Griggs home, where they reported the incident to police before Griggs spent 13 hours in the hospital receiving treatment for a gash over his eye.
But a seeming lack of urgency from law enforcement left the men waiting for officers to keep a scheduled meeting on the afternoon of Monday, Oct. 2. After the police were a no-show for that appointment, Balueta and Griggs were told officers would call on them "later that day, then on Tuesday," the news account detailed, but "nobody came to take statements until Wednesday morning."
The irony was that the couple had decided to report the attack "because so many people just watched and did nothing," Balueta said. "This has been happening to our community for years and is still happening in front of our very eyes today."
In that, Balueta is not wrong. The news account noted that violent bias-driven crime targeting LGBTQ+ people in Britain has soared in recent years, reaching staggering numbers, with "more than 24,000 hate crimes" annually targeting sexual minorities. Though last year saw something of a decline in such attacks, the article noted, the first three months of this year saw "24,102 hate crimes against people in Britain because of their sexual orientation," with hate crimes against transgender people increasing 11% in the past year, Yahoo News detailed.
Balueta took to X (formerly Twitter) with a series of tweets that described the attack just as he related it to Yahoo News.
The local MP, Jon Cruddas of the Labour Party, seemed to take the incident seriously, telling the news outlet, "It is appalling that prejudices like this are still affecting our community."
"I will be making representations to both the local authority and police to seek assurances that this will be investigated, and that all efforts are being made to support the LGBT community who may feel vulnerable following this incident," Cruddas added.
"There is no place for homophobic hate in modern Britain."