Couple brutally attacked by neighbours in homophobic assault
Mauro Padovani and Tom Freeman opened up about their attack on social media
By Steve Brown
Two men were brutally attacked by their neighbours in a homophobic assault in Belgium.
Mauro Padovani, 39, and his husband Tom Freeman, 59, – who suffers from Alzheimer’s – took to Facebook to open up about their ordeal where they claimed that they were attacked by their homophobic neighbours.
Freeman suffered from back injuries and they both suffered from multiple facial injuries.
Speaking to Corriere.It, Padovani said: “They spat in our face. They insulted us. And then they started beating us with a steering lock.
“On the head, on the back, on the legs. Everywhere. And all this just because we are gay. I love Belgium. We got married here. But now I do not feel safe anymore.
“To beat a person like him is like beating a child.”
Padovani claims that they had multiple altercations with their neighbours with them saying, ‘We hate gays’, after meeting them for the first time.
The couple met 12 years ago and Padovani moved from Italy to Flanders a year before Freeman was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.