The story follows two young men who were attacked outside a nightclub in Brighton, leaving physical and emotional scars.
Is It Safe To Be Gay in The UK? is the name of a new documentary where this story appears as a part of the BBC Gay Britannia series on BBC iPlayer.
James and Dain had been together for five years when on a bank holiday weekend in Brighton, they were both attacked outside of a club.
“We were having a great time, I guess it was about 3 o’clock, we were at the bar and just got this look from a couple of guys from across the dance floor area,” James explained.
“It takes a lot to make me feel uncomfortable. But it was just a weird look that they gave us.”
The attackers then started shouting across the club and so the couple thought that the best thing to do was to leave and get straight into a taxi, but they followed them out and chased them down.
Dain was knocked unconscious after being thrown to the ground.
“My eye socket was completely shattered, I had haemorrhages in both eyes, I had fractures on my cheeks, my eyes were completely red, my tooth was chipped and my nose was broken at the top as well,” Dain recalled.
“I remember being at the hospital and I kept asking, ‘Am I going to see again?’”
It took eight weeks for Dain’s eyesight to fully return, and during that time he had to postpone graduation and was unable to accept a job offer.
The two attackers pleaded guilty to GBH and ABH and the initial conviction was five years in prison, but was extended to seven because of the homophobic nature of the crime.
You can watch Is It Safe To Be Gay in The UK? on BBC iPlayer now.
