3 Teens Filmed Brutally Attacking A Lesbian Couple In London Plead Guilty

Three teenagers pleaded guilty to harassing a lesbian couple in May this year. On Thursday, the young suspects, ages 15, 16, and 17, changed their pleas after pleading not guilty in August.

Back in May, the young boys were caught on video demanding the lesbian couple to kiss in front of them on a London bus. The two women, Melania Geymonat, 28, and Christine Hannigan, 29, took a double-decker night bus home on May 30, where they encountered the group of teens. The teens threatened the couple by hitting them with coins and subjecting them to sexual gestures after they had refused to perform the sex act.

According to a report, each of the three teens pled to two counts of causing harassment, alarm or distress by using threatening, abusive, insulting words or behavior ahead of a trial that was set to begin on Thursday. The police dismissed charges against the fourth 17-year-old suspect due to lack of evidence.

In August, the teens denied the allegations against them despite the video clearly showing them harassing the women. The video shows the suspects sitting behind the lesbian couple, asking lewd questions to them and making comments about their sexuality.

The teens continued to make sexual remarks despite one of the women trying to deflect their obscene remarks. After a while, the teens started surrounding the couple, tossing coins at them and mocking them by imitating sexual gestures in front of them. According to prosecutor Saira Khan, each of the teens played a different role in the brutal bus attack.

While the suspects have already pleaded guilty to harassing the couple, a debate is still ongoing as to whether or not the attack was made due to the couple’s sexual orientation. While Khan believes that what the teens did was a manifestation of a targeted behavior relating to their victims’ sexual orientation, District Judge Susan Williams refused to call it a hate crime.

“The boys clearly found it highly amusing, clustering around them, watching them like some sort of sideshow,” he said. “They seem to think it as a huge joke. I think it is adolescent, childish, and entirely inappropriate. I do not think I would describe it as a hate crime,” he added.