A MAN who told police he was left covered in blood after a masked gang sliced a homophobic slur onto his buttock cheek with a razor has now told police that his injuries were consensual.
The 20-year-old first told officers that he was targeted on Sunday at 5.15pm by a group of eight violent thugs who covered their faces with hoods and followed him into the hallway of his home in the central Madrid neighbourhood of Malasaña.
The alleged attack prompted outrage across Spain following a wave of homophobic assaults throughout the country this summer, including two shocking incidents in Jaen and Alicante and the brutal murder of Samuel Luiz in A Coruña .
Luiz was just 24 when he died after a group of people chased him and beat him to death while shouting the word ‘fag’.
Hundreds of people took to Twitter to condemn the rise in homophobic attacks, including Rita Maestre, a spokesperson for Más Madrid at the City Council, who called for greater action against hate crimes in Spain and Alejandra Jacinto, deputy for United We Can in the Madrid Assembly.
On Wednesday afternoon, police and the interior ministry sources said the man had withdrawn his initial claim.
“The man has changed his statement and has said that the assault was consensual,” a Policia Nacional spokeswoman told the Guardian. She added that the man could face legal action for making a false complaint.
The organisers of Wednesday night’s demonstrations in Madrid said the protests would still go ahead, insisting that one inaccurate report should not distract from the plight of hate crime victims in Spain.
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