THE victim of a tirade of homophobic abuse and vandalism has spoken out about his humiliation and anger at the perpetrator.

Ian Wilson said he went through an “awful” ordeal at the hands of businessman Gary Edmonds at the Queen Victoria pub in Rottingdean.

As reported by The Argus, Edmonds was among a group of men drinking in the pub when he was asked to leave by Ian and his partner, the landlord Philip Rees.

The 52-year-old of Chailey Avenue, Rottingdean, had already been barred from the pub but verbally abused Mr Wilson before punching through a glass panel on a night out.

Mr Wilson said: “The experience was thoroughly humiliating.

“He admitted knowing he wasn’t welcome in the pub and then tried to bully me into shaking his hand on the promise of no more trouble if I complied and the threat of more trouble if I didn’t.

“I decided the best route was to bury my pride and shake his hand, despite the fact that I knew he was very effectively trying to publicly humiliate me.

“What makes it worse is that the pub, as well as being a business we love, is our home.

“To have to stand in your home and feel like that is truly awful.

“After the event, I was incredibly angry.

“This was the last of a series of incidents during which we’ve repeatedly suffered similar abuse from him.

“To be living in Brighton, which is known as one of the most tolerant cities in the country, and to have to suffer the most basic kind of homophobia – worse than I have ever experienced in my life – is utterly shocking.

“I feel that, whilst a few words and a broken window might be relatively minor things, the impact they knew it would have was calculated and deliberate, which makes me so angry.

“We have worked incredibly hard over the last five years to turn our pub into somewhere that’s the heart of the village.”

Edmonds appeared at Brighton Magistrates’ Court on Monday and was given a £1,086 fine and a 12-month restraining order to not make any direct contact with either Mr Rees or Mr Wilson after the incident on August 13 last year was found to be homophobically aggravated.

The director of Channel Glazing in Beaconsfield Road, Brighton, had denied causing criminal damage but was found guilty.