Asian Man Mugged By Homophobic Thugs After Defending His Gay Friend In Apparent Hate Crime

An Asian biomedical student, who bravely stood up for his gay friend in a brutal fight with bullies, was left severely injured in a homophobic attack on Thursday.

Yang Wu, 27, an engineering and regenerative medicine student at Cardiff University was rushed to a hospital after an irate man punched him repeatedly in the face. The homophobic assault has been tagged an apparent hate crime incident by authorities.

Wu told Pink News that he had brought his friend to Esso Gas Station on 3 Cathedral Road to buy cigarettes from the Shop N’ Drive minimart at 12:30 a.m. after a Pride celebration in town.

While there, two bullies accosted them and called them horrid names and slurs. Wu then clarified that they weren't a couple, but the two thugs still ganged up on the duo and violently assaulted them.

“I was very irritated and my friend was drunk, so I acted quite roughly to protect him when the attacker threw [an] object at us,” Wu said.

The thugs then targetted Wu and brutally mugged him.

“I was punched right on the face by one of them,” the medical student said.

Surveillance cameras show that Wu was being pummeled and left almost unconscious by the two attackers. His front tooth was severely knocked off during the vicious beating. He also sustained a broken nose and a ruptured lip.

Moreover, Wu dismayingly said that the shop employee who witnessed the assault did not have the initiative to call the police during the heinous crime.

Wu boldly managed to call the police himself after the attack, as his friend also tried to do so.

The South Wales Police said that officers are investigating the incident.

“A hate crime is any crime motivated by hostility on the grounds of race, religion, sexual orientation, disability or transgender identity,” a police spokesperson said. “Hate crime has no place in society and has always been a priority for South Wales Police.”

There has been an alarming increase in homophobic and transphobic hate crimes in England and Wales since 2014, according to The Guardian Crimes such as stalking, harassment, and violent attacks have also doubled since 2014.

Police reportedly recorded 11,600 crimes in 2018, which multiplied 2014’s crime rate of 4,600.

Laura Russell, the director of campaigns policy and research at Stonewall, expressed her concern with the surge in attacks against the queer communities.

“We are still not living in a society where every LGBT person is able to achieve their potential and not have to live in fear of physical or verbal violence for being who they are,” Russel said.