Two men arrested after assault in Liverpool City Centre

We have arrested two men following an assault in Liverpool City centre in the early hours of Saturday 10 July.

At around 12.25am, we received a report that a man in his 20s had been assaulted by three men on Bold Street, outside the Tesco supermarket. The offenders are said to have asked the victim for money and subjected him to homophobic abuse during the attack before they made off. 

Officers attended and took the victim to hospital, where he was treated for facial injuries. 

Following witness and CCTV enquiries, a 43-year-old man from Liverpool was arrested on suspicion of Section 47 Assault.

A 33-year-old man from Sefton has been arrested on suspicion of Section 47 Assault and on suspicion of possession of a Class A drug.

They remain in custody for questioning by detectives.

Chief Inspector Col Rooney said: "This was an appalling incident which left a young man shaken and injured. Although we have made arrests, our investigations into the attack will continue.

"As well as physical violence, we believe that homophobic slurs were directed at the victim and we are treating the attack as a hate crime. This type of behaviour brings shame on our city, and it has rightly outraged many people. We share this anger - targeting anyone based on their sexual orientation or gender identity has no place whatsoever on Merseyside.

"High visibility officers are out tonight in Liverpool's Pride Quarter and beyond, and they will continue to patrol over the coming days and weeks. After a number of worrying incidents over the last month, we want our LGBT+ community to be reassured that we stand with them: we are committed to protecting them, and we will do whatever we can to bring offenders to justice.

“I would take this opportunity to urge any victim of homophobic, biphobic or transphobic hate crime on Merseyside to please come forward and let us know. We have a team of specialist officers who will offer support as sensitively as possible.” 

Anyone with information is asked to contact us via our social media desk on Twitter @MerPolCC or Facebook ‘Merseyside Police Contact Centre’ with reference 21000479926.

You can also contact the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously, on 0800 555 111 or via their online form at: https://crimestoppers-uk.org/give-information/give-information.

If, for any reason, you do not wish to the report to the police, the independent charity Stop Hate UK to run a 24/7 confidential helpline for all victims of hate crime on 0800 138 1625 or www.stophateuk.org. You can also download the Stop Hate UK reporting app on Google Play or the Apple App Store.