Man who smashed a man’s face for holding his boyfriend’s hand has been jailed
(Cate Gillon/Getty Images)
A man has been jailed for two years after admitting to smashing a pint glass into the face of a man who was holding his partner’s hand.
Anjungi Lam, 35, from London, was caught on CCTV running up behind the victim and smashing the pint glass on him before fleeing the scene.
The attack took place on March 5, at around 10:30pm.
The victim, 23, and his 20-year-old boyfriend arrived holding hands at the Kentish Drovers pub on Peckham High Street in South London.
Whilst deciding what drinks to purchase from the Wetherspoons, Lam struck the victim with the pint glass against the right side of his face.
The attack, which police have suggested was homophobic in intention, left the victim with cuts across his nose, lip, and neck.
He also got a chipped tooth and injured cornea from the attack.
Flying glass fragments hit his boyfriend’s face.
Lam previously worked at a south London pub for three months before being sacked for lateness.
Due to CCTV footage of the incident, Lam was quickly identified by police and arrested.
He was charged just two weeks later.
Lam admitted to grievous bodily harm at Inner London Crown Court on June 23 and was sentenced on November 17 to two years in prison.
Investigating officer PC Lance Sharrock said: “This was an entirely unprovoked incident.”
He continued: “Lam did not know the victim or his partner, they had not spoken nor had any disagreement to provoke such a violent attack.
“The victims felt Lam must have been motivated by homophobia as they entered the pub holding hands and we began a hate crime investigation.”
Lam was jailed for an additional year for a number of unrelated offences, including actual bodily harm, assault by beating, theft, and having an offensive weapon.
The London Metropolitan Police have reported a significant rise in homophobic hate crimes in England and Wales, with 20 attacks recorded daily.
But these are not limited to England and Wales. In a similar attack in Ireland this year, a man was bitten on the nose for kissing his date in a pub.
When a man attempted to stop the verbal homophobic abuse being directed at his friend in Glasgow earlier this year, he was left seriously injured.
