Hate crime victim rebuilds his life
ONE week before his 18th birthday Aaron Doherty was brutally attacked because of his sexuality.
He was on his way to with his friends to celebrate his birthday early. But, while walking towards Rochdale train station, the group saw a gang of 12 men on the opposite side of the road.
“We clocked something was not right,” Aaron said.
Within seconds Aaron and his friends were being chased.
“The fashion at the time was to wear your trousers quite low,” Aaron said.
“I genuinely believe if I had a worn a belt that day, I would have gotten away from that attack.
“As I was running my trousers had fallen down and I tripped up, the 12 men attacked me.
“They smashed my face against the kerb, saying things like ‘die f ***** , die.”
“I remember it clear as day.”
Aaron believes they were picked out for what he describes as his ‘demeanour and physical appearance back then.’
“All of a sudden the attack stopped and they said to me run ‘along gay boy,’” Aaron recalled.
“I started to crawl across the street but they pulled me back and attacked me a second time.
“It was just for their pleasure, they wanted to see me try and move.”
The vicious bullies only stopped when one of the men protested that they would kill him if they carried on.
“I’m thankful to that person for having some sort of humanity,” Aaron said.
Drenched in his own blood, Aaron ‘crawled’ to taxi ranks begging for help, only to be turned away.
Eventually he was reunited with a friend, and got to the police station, and then the hospital.
He spent the next three days in hospital.
He had a broken nose, bruised eye sockets, two broken arms and glass in his hip and knee.
Recovery was long and painful. The psychological impact was severe.
He began to suffer from episodes of traumainduced paralysis that left him dependent on a wheelchair.
He suffered from memory loss, forgetting things like his mother’s name, or where he lived.
“I just used to wet myself uncontrollably, my brain would not tell my body it was time to use the toilet,” he said.
“I didn’t leave my home for about six months after the attack.”
As for the support he was offered, Aaron didn’t find it much use. I was taken to victim support in Rochdale and told to go the doctors to get some anti-depressants and given a CD with noises of whales. They told me if I if I listened to that I’d be fine.
“Something switched that day, and I said ‘there needs to be more.’”
The attack was March 2010 and the idea that something positive could come from this ordeal was the last thing on Aaron’s mind.
But, a decade on, Aaron has established a successful performing arts career and he’s using that to try and prevent attacks like the one he endured.
With new found courage, Aaron took to social media to write about the attack and raise awareness.
The post gained a lot of support and spurred Aaron to help people by telling his story and using drama to fight hate crime.
He is now a franchise owner and director for theatre company Footlights Theatre school.
He joined the company three years ago after impressing the founder Jo Fisher with his infectious personality and went on to direct two franchises which include three stage schools, two singing academies, one acting school, a small stage school and an adult school of acting.
They tour their powerful plays and workshops about hate crime around schools in the region.
This year, Footlights plan on taking their productions into prisons. Educating people about hate crime is my kind of justice,” Aaron said.
“Because of my past and what I’ve been through, I always make a conscious effort to include everybody and give time to everybody.”
With a fulfilling career that raises awareness and helps young actors get placements in shows including Game of Thrones, Aaron has reached a place in his life he never thought he would.
“I’m getting married in July, I’m very nervous and it’s very emotional because I never thought it would happen”, he said.
“It’s just a very overwhelming thing to look back and think about what has happened in the last decade.
“From the young, small lad who was attacked and pretty much left for dead, working through those emotions, to working at one of the top educators of hate crime in the UK.
“Sometimes it takes a bad experience to make you push through and realise you need to work on yourself.”