Gay man afraid to leave his house after being hit with hammer in brutal ‘homophobic hate crime’

A gay man has said he was afraid to leave his house after he was hit in the face with a hammer in a suspected homophobic hate crime.

Lóránt-Árpád Tompos was attacked between 2am and 2.30am on Saturday 18 August in the seaside town of Torquay, Devon.

Tompos decided to speak out about his experience because he wants others in the LGBT+ community to know about the dangers that can sometimes lurk in plain sight.

Speaking to PinkNews, Tompos said he was “very concerned and frightened to go outside again” in the weeks after the shocking attack.

The incident occurred at the tail-end of a night out in Torquay with friends. While walking home, a group of men and women started “antagonising” Tompos and his friends.

“One of the girls made a phone call on speaker phone and loudly said she was being harassed by gays, next thing you know another group of males had arrived outside my friend’s house,” Tompos explained.

The altercation quickly escalated when one of the men took out a hammer and approached Tompos.

“I never thought for a second he was actually going to use it,” Tempo said. “The next thing, I found myself on the floor and my head was hurting.”