A 34-year-old man has been charged with a hate crime for allegedly groping, harassing and punching two lesbians at an NFL football game.

The married lesbian couple attended the Seattle Seahawks vs Arizona Cardinals with their mothers on 30 December.

According to court documents, Jay Dee Harp III, spent much of the game harassing the women.

Harp made crude comments to the women and stepped on their toes and one of their mothers’ toes every time he passed their seats, according to the Seattle Times.

Whenever he passed the women he allegedly made crude comments. Some of the vulgar comments included, ‘fucking dyke’, ‘suck my dick’ and ‘do you need a man in your life’.

Things escalated during the third quarter when he reportedly unzipped one of the women’s jackets. He grabbed her breast and wouldn’t let go. When the women tried to push him away, Harp allegedly threw beer in one of their faces.

Other people in the crowd apprehended Harp and tried to pin him to the ground. But he managed to get up and punched the other woman after she told him to ‘back off’.

The woman suffered a laceration, chipped tooth and a bloody nose.

It took several officers to restrain Harp who kept resisting arrest and allegedly punched one of the troopers. They eventually had to use a stun gun to subdue him.

‘It took multiple officers to detain the defendant and he continued to aggressively fight and assault the arresting officers, punching one of them in the stomach,’ Deputy Prosecutor Rhyan Anderson wrote in charging papers.

The women speak out

Police charged Harp with second degree assault and malicious harassment, which is Seattle’s legal name for a hate crime.

Harp was released on a bail of $25,000 on 31 December. But prosecutors increased that amount to $100,000 and issued a warrant for his rearrest.

In a statement to police the woman punched wrote: ‘I have been an active member of the LGBT community for decades and fought for marriage equality as an adult.’

‘The man’s chronic and repeated comments about our sexuality, based on my experience, suggest my sexual orientation may have motivated today’s assault,’ she wrote.

People at the game captured the horrifying scenes on video.