Three gay students were attacked outside the Coven II night club in the early hours of Saturday morning in what may have been a homophobic attack.
The male St Peter’s students, who wish to remain anonymous, were leaving the Coven II at 3am when a stranger head-butted and punched them in a seemingly unprovoked attack.
This attack, the victims claim, is the latest in a string of homophobic assaults to take place near the club.
A man approached the students from a group of people outside the nightclub. Without provocation, the man told one of the students, "You’ve got a fucking attitude problem." The student denied this, after which the man repeated the statement before headbutting him in the face.
"I went down to try and comfort him and get him back on his feet and then I turned around and my other friend was on the floor with blood pouring from his face," one of the victims said. "The guy grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and said, ‘Do you want a piece of it?’ or something like that. It all just happened so quickly. He thumped me in the face."
The attacker was described as a tall white male with a shaven head and black hooded sweatshirt who was with a group of 4 to 8 friends. Following the attack, they fled the scene.
One of the attacker’s companions then turned back, apologised to the students and requested that the police not be involved.
After the group fled, bystanders offered assistance and called the police. An ambulance was later called for one of the students, who needed stitches. All three had facial and in one case dental injuries.
The attacker was not seen in the club itself, but was causing trouble to the club’s bouncers before the incident. The punched fourth-year said, "As we left, there was a guy outside who was obviously very drunk. He was picking a fight with the bouncers, being rude, and they were trying to send him away. The group of friends were definitely in the Coven but I didn’t see the man in there."
Police have since told the students that they are unlikely to find the attacker.
Violent attacks at Coven II, located in Oxpens Road near the Oxford Ice Rink, are reported to be common and occasionally homophobic in nature as the club hosts a gay night every Friday.
"Guys just wait outside and wait for gay men to leave," said one of the St Peter’s students. "The police are aware of this, but they seem uninterested and I’ve never seen any signs of enforcement."There were no police. They know the situation but they wait for the incident before they arrive. If you go down a main street in Oxford on a Friday night, there are police everywhere, but the Coven is totally unmonitored, and there’s no CCTV," he added.
