Brave Rory faces up to hate crime
Ayr man is poster boy for new campaign
A brave Ayr man who endured years of bullying over his facial birthmark is the poster boy for a campaign to make abuse against people with disfigurements a hate crime.
Rory McGuire, 24, defied the bullies to highlight the prejudice he has faced.
At one point, Rory said the years of torment had left him wanting to die on the operating table.
He is now calling for people to “speak up, speak out, together let’s stop it”.
Rory wants to raise awareness of what a hate crime is and how to report it.
He demanded more training for police so they are aware of how to deal with hate crimes.
Golf fan Rory said: “I was told I was a freak.
“I was compared to an alien. “I don’t think people realise how much that can get to someone, especially a young boy.
“The mental side of the abuse I had to face really halted my development from a teenager into a young man. If there are more people reporting hate crimes, they might begin to take them more seriously. And if they begin to take them more seriously, then the people that are actually carrying out these crimes will think twice about it.
We previously revealed Rory suffered years of cruel taunts because of his birthmark.
He was so low at one point, he thought dying on the operating table would end his anguish.
But he now is on the road to a full recovery after a three-hour surgery to remove the type of birthmark called a venous malformation on his upper lip.
It was the admin assistant’s 16th operation in five years.
The charity Changing Faces said that for too long, people who have a visible difference and “look different” have been subject to abuse and harassment in their daily lives.
“They revealed that there were 67,000 disability-related hate crimes every year.
A Changing Faces survey of 800 people with a disfigurement found that a third said they have been a victim of a hate crime because of how they look but only a tiny minority reported it to police.
Changing Faces’ head of advocacy Henrietta Spalding said: “Being different in a society where there is such pressure to look a certain way is tough.
“We want to see hate crimes that target appearance recognised and reported.
“No one deserves to suffer abuse because of the way they look and it’s time to break the cycle of hate in our society.
“We know from our research and through interviewing victims of hate crimes that there are many barriers to reporting.
“We want to equip people with the confidence and the methods to report abuse.”