After he was assaulted last year – and there is no dispute that he was, in fact, assaulted – TV Presenter Brendan Courtney was quite clear on the reasons for what had happened to him. So clear, in fact, that the mainstream media felt the reasons worth amplifying:
Courtney added that last night’s incident felt like a homophobic attack and that in any case, “nothing justifies an attack like that unwarranted”.
Courtney also appealed to the public to attend a Pride event if there is one near them.
“It means the world and it’s never more important than this year.”
He believes it was an opportunistic homophobic attack by people “on the hunt” for someone to assault.
“Last night, at nine o’clock on my way home with some food, crossing the traffic lights just outside my apartment, three lads pulled up in a car – and jumped out of a car – and jumped out and attacked me and punched me to the ground,” he said.
Brendan Courtney has told how he was “attacked” and “punched to the ground” near his home in what was likely a homophobic attack on Dublin’s quays last night.
The presenter shared his experience online this morning, warning others to “be careful” as he asked “what’s going on” in the capital.
I could go on: The claim that the attack on Courtney was homophobic in nature – ie that he was singled out and beaten up because of his sexuality – was widely shared, credulously, by the Irish media.
He was, as it turns out, seriously assaulted. But the circumstances were not quite as advertised. Back to the Journal, for consistency:
Clarke said this is an “utterly bizarre offence”, which does not really have an explanation.
Referring to the statement from the cyclist, Clarke said the catalyst appeared to be a “bang of some description on the window” and that Deegan took umbrage.
Counsel said this was not an excuse for what happened and asked the court to take into account his client’s guilty plea, co-operation and youth at the time.
Two letters of apology, including one written to the victim, and letters of reference from family members were handed to the court. Clarke said these letters speak of a man who is “supportive and helpful to others”.
He said his client was supportive of his two sisters, who are gay. He noted that his client is adamant that he did not know who the injured party was.
From all the evidence adduced in court, it appears that Courtney was the victim of a random, albeit serious assault, arising from some form of dispute escalating to physical violence. His attacker has no previous or subsequent convictions, and two gay sisters. He also claims, reasonably convincingly, that he did not know who Courtney was.
Now of course, for reputational reasons alone, it is in the attacker’s interest to strongly deny any homophobic motive in this case. A conviction for assault is one thing, but to be known in Irish society as a violent homophobe is probably a career-ender. But even with that caveat, the evidence seems relatively compelling that there was no homophobic element to the assault on Courtney.
This does matter.
The problem here is not, for the avoidance of doubt, Courtney’s. Somebody who has just been randomly assaulted – particularly somebody in the public eye who might reasonably expect to be recognised pretty often – is naturally going to speculate on what happened. When he is a prominent person, that speculation is likely to be repeated by the media.
But note what happened after this week’s conviction: Was there any update to the original story? Was there any media reporting correcting the record, and making clear that “the homophobic attack we told you about last year probably wasn’t homophobic after all?” No. No, there was not. Instead, the original story has been allowed to stand, on the public record, un-updated and uncorrected.
The other point here is that what happened to Courtney was dreadful entirely independent of the motive for the attack. He was violently assaulted. It was the Irish media and the Irish media alone who chose to elevate this particular assault to a new level of seriousness by adding in the charge of homophobia, thus suggesting by implication that the assault on Courtney was partly the result of a collective societal sin being committed on an ongoing basis by Irish society. “This person was beaten up because homophobia is still rife in Irish society” was the message, which is a very different message to “this was a random and brutal assault”.
The media, I think, has a duty to correct the record here. But I suspect we will be waiting some time for them to do so.