LONDON, UK -- A Deaf woman has told how she was punched in the face and strangled with her own tie by a homophobic attacker just a few yards from her home in south London.
Helena Martins, 43, who lost her hearing five years ago to Ménière's disease, was cornered by the man as she walked home through Tooting last night.
Moments before, she had removed her cochlea implant, which she relies on to hear, as she approached her house.
The man hit her in the eye and choked her with her polka dot tie, which she believes marked her out as gay, and her implant dropped on the floor. As she fought to protect herself, the man scratched her across her face and levelled more blows at her head.Mrs Martins, who is trained in taekwondo, eventually managed to kick him in the crotch, prompting him to run away, before she picked up her implant and rushed into her house, where she lives with her wife of three years.
She was today recovering from a swollen eye, as well as cuts and bruises to her face.
Commenting on her ordeal, Mrs Martins, who moved to London from Portugal just over 12 years ago, told the Standard: "I am very shaken. I have no doubt that I was targeted because I was a woman wearing a tie. He was quite fixated on the tie. I am not butch but I wear masculine attire." ...Read The Full Story.
