It took more than seven years after the events before the alleged perpetrators were tried. This Monday, a 34-year-old man was fined 900 euros (180 day-fines at five euros) after an assault in a gay bar in Nantes (Loire-Atlantique) in 2015, report our colleagues from Ouest-France . He will also have to complete a citizenship course.
This 34-year-old man appeared on Monday before the Nantes Criminal Court, by videoconference since he is already incarcerated for another case. His father, free and absent from the hearing, was also tried for the same facts. He was released. Two other men, present according to the testimonies, were never found. The two defendants never, during their hearings, wanted to give the identity of the two fugitives.
The facts date back to June 7, 2015 when, according to witnesses, four men and a 5-year-old child entered a gay bar in downtown Nantes, called Le Ferry. According to France Bleu, the adults would then have used the boy to insult the customers of the establishment. He allegedly started by throwing “dirty fag” at them.
“They were looking to break the fag”
The bartender would then have asked the small group to leave the premises. Names of birds are exchanged and the blows come to rain. The fight that broke out injured four customers. “A black eye, swollen lips, bleeding legs”, according to local radio, one of the victims is even prescribed 10 days of total incapacity for work (ITT). Another man also injured in the lip and ear will have four days of ITT.
“They were looking to break the fag,” said one of the customers present that evening. The five protagonists would have finally fled just before the arrival of the police. Police officers who will have time to raise one of the two license plates of the vehicles that escape them.
Facing the court (from a distance), the 30-year-old, who already has 11 convictions on his criminal record, assures us: “We didn’t know it was a homophobic bar (sic)”. Before being quickly taken up by the president: “No, homosexuals”. “They were the ones who started looking for us, hitting us,” he recalled in his defense. A version which had not been convincing in the eyes of the prosecution which had requested two suspended sentences of eight months in prison for the two men. The defense underlined “a flawed investigation” by recalling that the father “had not even been heard by the investigators”.