Rugby Player Suffered Brutal, Homophobic Attack Outside of Club
Lunchtime Live he was with his cousin and her boyfriend when the man spotted them leaving the club and made a “beeline” for him.“I’m clearly the gay one of the group,” Somers told Lunchtime Live. “And it’s not something I try to hide.The man allegedly approached Somers and called him a “baldy c-word” along with other “certain gay slurs starting with ‘f’” before he sucker-punched the rugby player in the face, fracturing his eye socket.“And from there, to be honest, I don’t remember a lot.
I did get knocked unconscious, I believe,” Somer said. “Along the way, I did fracture my ankle in two different places.” Police say at that point a group of men happened upon the assault and allegedly joined the attack on the defenseless Somers.
The same group was suspected of an unprovoked attack on an Italian man a short time earlier in the area. Like Somers, that man was also hospitalized.Tánaiste Leo Varadkar, the second highest office in the country, told the Independent he arrived early on the scene of the attack and was “shocked and appalled that an assault of this nature happened in our capital city.”“I am utterly appalled by what happened, anybody who has seen the tweet and the pictures of what happened to this poor gentleman, it shouldn’t have happened," Minister for Justice Helen McEntee told the Independent.Tensions have been high in the region following the brutal killings of two gay men in Sligo earlier this month.
Yousef Palani, 22, also of Sligo, was charged with the murders Aldan Moffitt, 42, and Michael Snee, 58. Snee’s body was found in his home on Tuesday, April 12, and Moffitt’s body was discovered a day earlier.
