Hotel worker brutally assaulted and spat on by colleague in vile homophobic attack
Daniele Garrinella posted pictures of his injuries online (Facebook)
An Italian hotel worker was physically assaulted by a colleague after months of verbal homophobic harassment was ignored by his employers, according to a Facebook post.
Daniele Garrinella, from Barletta in southern Italy, was left with injuries all over his body after the unprovoked attack, which he says was triggered by him extinguishing a cigarette in an ashtray that had been previously emptied by his coworker.
The man shouted at him, “I don’t want your cigarettes, I work for the hotel, not for you,” before dragging him into a bathroom stall and brutally attacking him. Garrinella suffered injuries to his head, shoulders, arms, hip and femur.
“I defended myself. I exhausted him and he left, only to return to the office ten minutes later: he put me on the corner and continued,” he said.
He claims this was the culmination of months of verbal threats such as: “F****t, I will break your face.” In one incident he was grabbed by the collar of his shirt and spat in the face, according to Italian LGBT+ news site Neg.zone.
“All the staff knew that this guy had been threatening me for months, even the hotel manager, and nobody moved a finger,” he said.
Following the attack, Daniele took to Facebook to show photos of his injuries.
The post, which has been shared hundreds of times since December 2, reads: “Homophobic aggression at the workplace. From a colleague. […] Are we still convinced that the homophobia emergency is not a real emergency?”
Garrinella has not returned to work since the attack. He has reported the incident to his employer, but is not aware of what (if any) measures have been taken in response.
He has decided to speak out against the attack, “to avoid violence to someone else, or push people who [feel too] oppressed to talk.”
