A politician and broadcaster claims he was confronted and abused at a market by a man accusing him of being homophobic.

Mike Mendoza, 64, chairman of Adur District Council and a former talkSPORT radio presenter, said he was branded a ‘homophobic radio z-lister’ on Saturday.

In a post on his Facebook page yesterday Mr Mendoza said his attacker is a “bitter and twisted man” who has a vendetta against him and is writing “abuse and lies” online.

According to Mr Mendoza the blogger, who reveals himself online as Kieran Francis, made an appearance at the Farmers’ Market in Shoreham on Saturday and abused him.
 

His post read: “This idiot ‘faced me up’ in Shoreham last Saturday, which I was pleased about as I had never met him before and I knew he had been writing really stupid things about me and he seems to enjoy using some amazingly foul and abusive language.

“Initially I asked him nicely and calmly why he is writing these things about me when we have never met?

“His answer was: ‘You are a Tory, I will write what I like and you will never be able to stop me’.

” Along with the post Mr Mendoza posted a picture of himself standing behind a man who is wearing nothing but a g-string.

The post continued: “Do I look Homophobic! It’s a shame that a pathetic little man wishes to write nasty blogs. I guess it just shows him up as to what he really is!!” [sic]

Mr Francis told The Argus he was sick of Tories “ganging up and harassing” him and refused to confirm or deny if the online blog was penned by him.

He said: “I will be making a complaint to the police. There’s no proof I wrote the blog.”

A spokeswoman from Sussex Police said officers are investigating the market incident.