Homophobic attackers who assaulted gay couple with fruit spared jail sentence
Crown Prosecution Service
Two men who chased a gay couple through north London, spat at them and pelted them with fruit while hurling homophobic abuse have avoided jail, despite being convicted of a hate crime.
Mariusz Smietana, 46, and Dariusz Wawrzenczyk, 37, were sentenced at Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court after being found guilty of assault by beating over the attack on Alex Grant, 34, and his partner in Gospel Oak, Camden.
The court heard the couple were holding hands as they walked home from swimming at the Highgate Men’s Ponds on Hampstead Heath, shortly after 10pm on 1 July 2025, when they were targeted on Mansfield Road.
Prosecutor René De Silva said the pair approached the couple, spat on their legs and shouted homophobic slurs in Polish.
The abuse escalated when Smietana chased the men down the street and threw fruit at them, which CCTV showed he had taken from a nearby shop without paying.
In a victim impact statement, Grant described the lasting effect of the attack.
“The hate and vitriol we encountered that night has made me realise that even today I am, as a gay man, still vulnerable to violent homophobia,” he said.
“What had been a quiet summer evening spent enjoying the weather swimming with my boyfriend turned into a night full of fear and angst which lasted for many days afterwards.” He said he had ended the night “visibly shaken, restless, and unable to sleep”.
District Judge Vanessa Lloyd ruled that the offence was aggravated by hostility based on the couple’s sexual orientation. “The offence was motivated by or demonstrated hostility based on sexual orientation,” she told the court.
However, the judge found that the custody threshold had not been crossed, and sentenced both men, who represented themselves with the help of a Polish interpreter, to 12-month community orders.
They were also ordered to pay costs. The court heard Smietana, of Wembley, had previously received a caution for shoplifting in 2015.
