London bus driver ‘allowed man who hurled homophobic abuse at gay couple to board’ – My London
A gay couple was left “in tears” after a fellow passenger was allowed to board a bus despite hurling homophobic abuse at them.
Arthur Webber, 23, and his boyfriend, Dan, were on their way to afternoon tea on Sunday (September 5) to celebrate their anniversary when a man at a bus stop “angrily” called them “filthy sodomites”.
According to a series of Tweets posted by Arthur, the driver witnessed the passenger’s tirade but still allowed him to board the bus with the traumatised couple.
Arthur, a comedian from Peterborough, said he and Dan, a PhD student from Ealing in West London, were later assisted by a “very nice girl” who offered to help the couple report the incident.
Transport for London (TfL) has confirmed they are launching an investigation.
Siwan Hayward, Director of Compliance, Policing Operations and Security at TfL, said: “Homophobic abuse is a hate crime and has absolutely no place on our network.
“All our customers have the right to travel without fear of abuse or intimidation. We stand against hate crime and will look into this incident with the police and the bus operator.
“We urge anyone who experiences or witnesses hate crime to report it to the police immediately. It’s important that people tell us so we can stop it from happening again.”
It is unknown at this stage where in London the incident took place.
Posting to Twitter, Arthur said: “A man who angrily called me and my boyfriend “’filthy sodomites’ in front of the bus driver was allowed to come on the bus with us and reduced my boyfriend to tears. What the f**k TfL?
“It’s our f***ing anniversary and we were on our way to afternoon tea. How dare he?
“Thank you to the very nice girl who got off at the same stop at us and asked if we were okay and offered to help us report it. You are a saint.”
Later Arthur tweeted: “The same man has just got on the bus home with us and called us ‘batty men’, actually quite scared tbh.”
An hour following that, Arthur said him and his boyfriend were home safe and confirmed they had reported the incident to the police.
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