(JTA) — A young gay couple from Britain was assaulted while celebrating Christmas by thugs who picked on them also because one of them was Jewish, a Yorkshire news website reported.

The assault occurred on Dec. 25 outside a pub in the municipality of Thornaby, in North Yorkshire, England, according to an article published last week by the Gazette Live. Jayson Homer, 20, and his 21-year-old partner, who did not want to be named, were attacked and moderately injured outside the Jolly Farmers pub by a gang that harassed Homer’s partner for being Jewish.

The 21-year-old said: “At first a girl in the group started taking the mick out of me for being Jewish. Then another lad from the group came over saying being Jewish was a race. I was disagreeing with him and it was just a little debate really at first.”

But then the girl “started shouting ‘queer’ at me. Every time I went to the toilet someone said it while I was walking past,” he said. Homer and his partner left the pub but were followed by the alleged attackers, who punched them and hit them with bottles outside the establishment.

According to the victims, they were being followed by a group of 15 people. The Campaign Against Anti-Semitism, a British watchdog group, characterized the incident in a report posted on Thursday as a case involving victims who were “brutally assaulted by a gang hurling anti-Semitic and homophobic abuse.”

Homer said that the incident has left him “feeling suicidal” and that he has undergone checks for potential brain damage. His partner also requires further checks, while their friend, Marc Vasey, 21, has been told that he has been left with nerve damage to his cheek.

“I was bottled in the face. I couldn’t really see what was happening because they had knocked my glasses off and my eye was filled with blood,” Homer said.

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