UNITED KINGDOM - A homophobic teenager who brutally assaulted a gay man was forced to spend a day working on a gay magazine.
The punishment was designed by Brighton's hate crime team to teach the boy the error of his ways after he left his victim with serious and potentially life-threatening injuries.
The attacker was ordered to spend five hours working on 3SIXTY in Steine Street, Brighton.
Announcing a new drive against homophobic crime yesterday, Sussex Police and the community safety team said similar punishments could be used in future to stop offenders terrorising lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities.
Craig, 35, from Yorkshire, was assaulted in Dukes Mound, Brighton in the early hours of Sunday morning about a year ago.
A group of youths surrounded him as he looked out to sea and knocked him to the ground.
They ran off and a witness called the police. By the time they arrived, Craig's partner had showed up and given chase to the youths, who were apprehended by officers.
Craig was left with a damaged lymph system, scratched cornea and cuts and bruises across his face and body. He was admitted to hospital the following week with an infection that was threatening to spread to his brain and readmitted later with blood clots.
Craig, an A-level teacher, has made a full recovery, but the attack left him seriously shaken and determined to bring the culprit to justice.
He said: "As a gay man, I have experienced low-level homophobia throughout my life, such as name calling. I learned to roll the punches, but for me this punch was one blow too far.
"I like to think in reporting this crime I helped stop it happening to others."
The idea to get the offender to work with a gay organisation came from Sussex Police officers who have visited San Francisco to see pioneering policing methods in a large gay community.
David Harvey, co-owner of 3SIXTY, said: "They rang us in October and said, can this person come and spend a day with you? My initial reaction was, I am not sure if I want somebody who perpetrated a hate crime to be sitting next to me in my environment."
But after speaking to colleagues, Mr Harvey agreed to the programme - and now says he would do it again.
He said: "If we can change somebody's prejudiced view about us by admitting them into our environment, that has to be a good thing."
The boy, who Mr Harvey said seemed "a quiet, middle class lad" came to 3SIXTY in January, accompanied by a probation officer. He spent the first hour yawning and looking disinterested, until he was asked to write a story about a famous gay person. He wrote about H from Steps coming out, and was so proud of it he laid it out on a page and took it home.
Afterwards he asked if he could write to Craig to apologise for what he had done.
LGBT people are encouraged to report hate crime under Operation Reagan, which will work closely with LGBT organisations.
Police will up patrols in Kemp Town and the seafront, targeting known offenders and groups of youths. A sergeant, two police officers and two police community support officers have been assigned and every police officer in the city has been briefed. Violent crime always rises in the summer months.
At yesterday's launch on International Day Against Homophobia, Chief Superintendent Paul Pearce, the new divisional commander of Brighton and Hove Police, said the campaign would rely on community support.
He said: "We are acutely aware of the sensitivities in operations such as this but I for one believe passionately that a priority must be to prevent attacks that cause misery for the victims."
from The Argus
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