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A Nuneaton schoolboy who was left for dead following a horrific assault has broken his silence to claim he was assaulted because he is bisexual - after his brutal attackers were spared a jail sentence.

The teenager and his family, who cannot be named for legal reasons, say they feel they have been let down by the justice system.

A teenage boy from Coventry and another from Nuneaton, who cannot be identified, both pleaded guilty to assault and were given referral orders and made to pay compensation.

But the victim’s family said the pair should have faced hate crime charges – which carry a far tougher sentence - for attacking the schoolboy because of his sexuality.

“Right up until two days before the court date we were told they were going to be done for hate crime and that at least one of them should have got a prison sentence,” the boy’s mum said.

"Instead they both practically got away with it.”

The brutal attack

It was a prolonged and humiliating attack.

The victim’s mum said: “He had been out with friends all day, they were approached by one of them who said ‘what you hanging round with him for, you do know he is bi’.

"Then another said, ‘Is this right?' and attacked him. Another of them said ‘I can’t believe you hit him because he is gay’ but one of them said ‘I haven’t got a problem with gay people but I have got a problem with greedy bis like him’.”

She added that the attack then continued: “They kicked him on the floor, dragged him into a wooded area and attacked him again.”

Threats

She said then, to add insult to the injuries and ordeal they put him through, the thugs threatened him again: “They told him to tell people he was jumped by three lads in balaclavas, they said to him ‘if you give our names to the police, we will find you and kill you’.”

Even when he was brought home after being found battered, bleeding and bruised, the schoolboy stuck to the story.

“When he was brought home, I didn’t even recognise him, you could see a trainer mark on his face. I went into shock, I wanted to cry but I couldn’t,” she said.

“He told us he had been jumped by three lads in balaclavas but, then we got to hospital, he said what really happened.”

He needed hospital treatment but, once the bruises started to fade and the cuts heal, the real damage of the attack came to light.

He has been haunted by nightmares.

“I found him huddled with his hands over his head,” she said.

For weeks and months after the attack he wouldn’t leave the family home.

“He became a recluse, he just stayed in the house, he was too frightened to go anywhere.

“He went to his mates’ house twice, but he had to be picked up and dropped off back at home.”

The victim

Speaking to CoventryLive, the boy said: “I feel let down, I feel like no-one did their jobs properly because, if they did, one of them would be in jail,” he said.

“They attacked me because I am bisexual, what happened has changed my life, it has made me constantly look over my back.”

He said the only good thing to come out of the attack was the response from the local community: “People were so kind, really generous, I had so many things donated to me, people I didn’t even know donated money for me, none of us could believe it,” he said.

“I just wish that the police and the court had done their jobs properly.”

Forced to move

The impact of the attack has been so severe that the family has now moved out of Nuneaton.

“We had to move, I couldn’t risk him bumping into them again,” his mum said.

“He is a different kid now, he is a lot happier, he is going out, he is getting back to his old self, I don’t know if he will ever be back to what he was but he is so much better now than when we were in Nuneaton," she added.

Now, having settled into their new home, the family want to highlight the injustice they feel they have been served.

“He just wants to stop any other kids going through what he has been through,” she said.

“If they (the police) had said from day one it was not a hate crime, it wouldn’t have been so bad but all the way through we just kept being told that one of them might go to prison.”

Police statement

CoventryLive contacted Warwickshire Police Force and a spokesperson said: “We can confirm it was thoroughly investigated as a hate crime and charged as a hate aggravated crime.”

Contact was also made with the Crown Prosecution Service but no comment was made available.

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