UK: Gay man films homophobic tirade on mobile phone

BY NATASHA BARSOTTI — A gay man who was subjected to homophobic slurs and threats of violence by another man who was on a train with him filmed the incident on his mobile phone, the Manchester Evening News reports.

According to the report, Tyrone Ruscoe was heading home from Blackpool with his friend Alex Platt when another passenger began calling them faggots and cunts, adding, among other things, that if his son was gay, he “wouldn’t have him in the house.”

Later, when a railway official tried to intervene, the man threatened to “whack” Ruscoe and Platt. Ruscoe told the Evening News the man appeared to take offence that he and Platt had been sharing a coat.

The railway official at first advised the two friends to move from the area, but one of them objected, asking “Why should we?”

Police arrested a 56-year-old man “on suspicion of a public order offence following reports of a homophobic-related incident on board a train from Blackpool North to Manchester Airport,” the report adds. He was reportedly cautioned before being released.

“Passengers and staff should have the right to travel without fear of violence and abuse and BTP will continue to work with train operating companies to take action against those who negatively impact on the lives of others,” a British Transport Police spokesperson told the Evening News.

Natasha Barsotti is originally from Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean. She had high aspirations of representing her country in Olympic Games sprint events, but after a while the firing of the starting gun proved too much for her nerves. So she went off to university instead. Her first professional love has always been journalism. After pursuing a Master of Journalism at UBC , she began freelancing at Xtra West — now Xtra Vancouver — in 2006, becoming a full-time reporter there in 2008.

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