Battered on bus by ‘homophobic’ gang

POLITICIANS have demanded a special transport policing unit after this young man suffered a brutal homophobic attack on a Dublin bus.

Both Sinn Fein and Fianna Fail last night called for better policing of public transport after the shocking attack on Mark Sheehan in south Dublin early on Sunday morning. Mr Sheehan (26) suffered a suspected broken nose in the attack which happened when he and pals were getting a bus home in the Templeogue area of south Dublin.

Mr Sheehan revealed yesterday that he was subjected to vile homophobic abuse before the headbutt attack which left him badly traumatised – and with these shocking injuries. Mr Sheehan said he and pals had been out at the George Pub in central Dublin and were on their way home on the number 15 bus at around 4am when his ordeal began after a group of young men sat behind him.

He said: “A group of young men sat behind me and proceeded to mock and jeer my friends and I for the duration of the journey out of town.”

He tried to ignore the abuse – but it became even more aggressive, he revealed.

He said: “I used my earphones to drown them out, and when taking them off to place back in the case I heard even more insults - “Queer” “emo freak” “f **** t” to name a few.”

Mr Sheehan said he then challenged the thugs – only to be attacked.

He said: “I turned around and said to act their age.

Kicked

“This prompted one of the young men…to kick the earphones from my hand and across the bus.

“I immediately tried finding them as we were at our stop, and was being laughed at while crawling to find them.”

Mr Sheehan said he asked the teen why he had attacked him — and he was then targeted by another thug.

He said: “I was asking why he kicked them from my hand. This resulted in another person…to start threatening me.

“At this point the person who had kicked me ran up and headbutted me”.