Grieving man forced to move home after homophobic attacks
A man who lost his partner to cancer has been forced to move after he faced homophobic attacks.
A man has suffered 18 months of homophobic attacks, even through losing his civil partner to cancer.
Paul Finlay-Dickson lost his partner Maurice to cancer a month ago. The couple faced over a year of homophobic attacks together, which have continued past Maurice’s death.
According to the BBC, the couple, who are from Belfast, had faeces pushed through the letter box of the couple’s home in just one instance of the 18 months of attacks.
The attackers continue to attack a grieving Paul, a gang has thrown eggs at the home the couple shared and threatened to kill Paul. A rainbow flag that Maurice had requested to be draped on his coffin was ripped down from outside their home and covered in faeces. Police are investigating complaints of harassment.
Paul told BBC Radio Ulster’s Talkback programme that the attacks were still taking place when he was “coming to terms with losing my husband” and that the attacker’s families should be “ashamed” of them.
He also said that he feels he can longer live in the home he shared with Maurice.
Gavin Boyd from the Rainbow Project told the programme “We can’t allow these cases to just keep carrying on, it has too much of an impact, not only just on the individuals who are directly involved but their family, their friends, everyone who knows them.”
