Gay Couple Beaten by Homophobic Gang Armed With Nail-Spiked Piece of Wood

A gay couple was viciously beaten in broad daylight on a public street in London by a homophobic gang wielding a wooden panel embedded with nails.

The couple, Callum Griggs, 23, and Brad Balueta, 24, spoke exclusively with Yahoo News UK about the attack that left Griggs, a teaching assistant and sports coach, suffering from a bleeding and damaged eye.

Balueta said the two men were walking down a street in east London around 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, October 1, when they approached a group of 6 to 10 males aged around 18 to 20. The group hurled homophobic slurs like “batty boy” and “f*g” at the passing pair.

Griggs stopped and confronted the group. One of the alleged attackers replied using the teaching assistant’s name as well as correctly identifying the street where he lived.

“I will kill you,” Balueta recalled the youth telling his boyfriend.

It was a chilling revelation.

“I am out and proud but in all my life I have never felt so scared,” Balueta continued. “He clearly knew where my boyfriend lived, and was very aggressive.”

At this point, the gang became more aggressive and intimidating.

“One of them broke off a piece of large wood w[ith] nails and threatened him w[ith] it,” Balueta posted to X , formerly known as Twitter. “Another got closer, grabbed his shirt, and another sucker punched him on the back of the head.”

The gang attacked and kicked and punched. Balueta lamented “the fact that so many people were watching” but did not help, calling it “appalling and just shows what society is like and has been like for so long.”

The only people to help were two women identified as Ellie and Molly who saw the pair just after the attack as they drove past in their car. They stopped and gave the couple a ride home.

Balueta said the wound to Griggs’s eye required glue to repair, and the situation was made worse when it took until Wednesday for police to take a statement from the men.