On 15 August, partners Rob and Patrick, from Bicester, Oxfordshire, were in Birmingham for a friend’s housewarming party and decided to go out in the city’s Gay Village.
The pair left Missing Bar where they had initiated a light-hearted conversation with a group of men carrying balloons. After joking about whether the balloon was for a birthday the group of four men, who were said to be in a black SUV, retaliated in an aggressive manner and started physically assaulting the couple. “They did not like that and went into all sorts of foul language, including homophobic slurs directed at us,” the pair said.
Patrick tried to record the assailants on his phone, but the attackers stole his phone and pushed him to the ground before fleeing the