The metro case marked a turning point in the prosecution of hate crimes when the City Council and the Generalitat appeared as private prosecutors
En January 2019 a young homosexual received a brutal beating in the lobby of the Urquinaona metro in Barcelona, tipped by three people (a minor) who mocked him for his sexual condition. The Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia has just now confirmed the conviction of 3,6 years in prison for one of those homophobic bullies. The minor's case followed another path, with a 20-month sentence as the perpetrator of a crime of assault with the aggravating circumstance of acting with discrimination based on sexual orientation. The second assailant could not be identified.
The sentence of TSJC confirms, in detail, the facts as they were considered proven in a previous judgment of the Audience of Barcelona. A story that uncovers the ordeal suffered by this young man for the simple fact of being gay on a subway trip. The account of what happened in the sentence reveals the brutality and contempt shown by the accused.
The victim was on his way to work. When she got into the car, those three young people were already in that cabin. Sentence collects that “the victim was wearing a T-shirt with the print of a bear and printed in English the text 'Tell me handsome and feed me'”. The minor sat next to that passenger "and leaned on his shoulder«. «In a mocking tone, he began to make effeminate gestures, which were cheered with laughter by the rest of the defendants, all of them acting with the intention of ridiculing that young man before the rest of the passengers in the car.”, continues the letter.
The ruling emphasizes that said reaction “obeyed how he was dressed since the shirt alluded to the homosexual group”. The victim said nothing and changed seats, moving to the other end of the car. The attackers followed him there and continued with the taunts.
After the taunts came the brutal beating
When the subway arrived at the station Urquinaone the young man went down and the three attackers followed him. “The minor gave him a strong blow to the neck that caused him to fall to the ground and at that moment, the other defendant, acting with the same intention of undermining the physical integrity of the victim and finding him lying on the ground, gave him a first blow. kick", reads the ruling. The aggression continued with "a succession of kicks and punches, which were indistinctly applied to him by the two young men". The victim took more than three months to heal from the injuries suffered.
The trial marked that marked «one before and one after» in the path of these homophobic attacks on public transport. In this case the Barcelona's town hall and the Generalitat de Catalunya they appeared as private accusation. This homophobic attack led to the approval in 2021 of an action protocol against these cases of discrimination in Barcelona Metropolitan Transport (TMB).
