“Violence against LGBT people in Brazil has grown a lot recently,” said Margareth Hernandes, a lawyer based in Florianópolis and president of the gender law commission. Cristian González Cabrera, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, said that while the supreme court banned violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in 2019, “the government needs to take urgent further steps to stave off this epidemic of violence against LGBT people”. “It’s absurd to justify violence that is brutal and barbaric,” she said.īrazil has one of the most alarming rates of violence and discrimination against LGBT people in the world. She said opinion had been divided, with some people shocked by the case while others justified it, saying the man was gay. Ávila is supporting the family of the victim, and added that news of the attack, which came to light during pride month, had provoked a huge nationwide reaction. “This is a frightening crime but it’s very common in Brazil, and violence – not only against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people but also women, black people and immigrants – is worsening,” said Lirous Ávila, president of the Association in Defence of Human Rights, an organisation that helps victims of violence in Florianópolis. Verdi Furlanetto, chief of police, confirmed to the Guardian that his force is investigating but there have been no arrests as yet.
I couldn’t bear being left alone.”Ĭomfort eating sweets and chocolate, he would sit in the shower for hours, in a daze.įinally, last October, he was invited to DJ at an 18th birthday party at a local function room and, after his brother Joe, then 19, offered to stay with him throughout, he accepted.His attackers left him in the street where he was found and taken to hospital. I couldn’t even go to the bottom of the garden. “I lost control, chucking tables and chairs around, and screaming, ‘I want to die’. “For the next month, I wanted to die,” he said.
Too scared to stay in Manchester, fearing it might happen again, he moved back in with his parents in Newark. Sam (left) with his brother Jake and friend Kirsty, at the Boardmasters Festival, in Cornwall, in August 2015.Īfter taking internal swabs, blood tests, and photos of Sam’s cuts and bruises, the police officers - who he said were “brilliant” - took the clothes he had been wearing when he was attacked. Jan said: “It was horrific to hear what had happened. Sam’s girlfriend phoned his mum Jan, and care homes manager dad Gary, both 49, who drove to the flat in Manchester. “I had the same clothes on and smelt of the blokes. “I wasn’t interested.”Īfter officers arranged for him to have swabs taken later that evening, to collect evidence, he was told he could not wash.
I wanted to shower but they said no.”Īll three of them were interviewed by police, who then drove Sam to the place where he remembered seeing car park arches, after leaving the hotel - hoping to pinpoint the location of the crime. “It was only the thought of my family, that it would have destroyed them, that I thought, I can’t do it to them.”īack home, he broke down as he told Brady and his then girlfriend-of-18-months, who does not want to be named, what had happened. He recalled: “I took some cash out to pay my rent. Left with internal cuts and bruises, Sam remembers staggering home, in a daze.
Sam with his friend Brady, who was with him on the night out before the pair got separated.