BBC: Homophobic attack man badly hurt (UK)

Page last updated at 14:02 GMT, Monday, 26 October 2009

A man is in a life-threatening condition in hospital after what police have described as a homophobic attack in Liverpool city centre.

About 13 youths, aged between 15 and 18, are believed to have been involved in the assault on the 22-year-old in Stanley Street on Sunday evening.

Three boys from the Kirkdale area, two aged 15 and one aged 14, have been arrested on suspicion of assault.

Merseyside Police cordoned off Stanley Street during the investigation.

The victim had been out with friends when he was attacked, suffering serious head injuries, police said.

Det Ch Insp Tim Keelan said: "We are treating the assault as a homophobic hate crime and this incident shows there are still some people who have not learnt that crimes of this type are completely unacceptable.

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Thirteen people against one. I hope the viction recovers fully and is able to describe every single one of his attackers.

It makes it sound like the victim was a homophobe who was brutally attacked by people who hate homophobes. I'm certain that isn't the case.

I found the headline awkward, for sure, and read the article to find out whether it was a homophobe or the victim of homophobes who was badly hurt. But the article seemed pretty clear to me that the victim is gay and not a homophobe.

The punctuation of the title. "Homophobic attack man badly hurt" makes it sound as if the man was a homophobe, attacking someone ("homophobic attack man") rather than the person being beaten. It's an "eats shoots and leaves" sort of thing.