A man from Crosby has been fined £750 after an incident involving a homophobic comment.

Jason Craig Quayle became involved in a brawl with two men at the bus stop at Peel Town Hall during which one was assaulted.

The 23-year-old, who lives at Reayrt ny Crink, admitted an offence of provoking behaviour.

A second man who was with Quayle, Callum Ryan Ivan Bratty, aged 20, of Derby Road, Douglas, was previously sentenced at the Court of General Gaol Delivery after admitting assault causing actual bodily harm.

The incident took place June 4 at 10.30pm.

Quayle shouted ’faggots’ at two men and then walked over to them with Bratty.

Quayle admitted throwing punches during a struggle.

His advocate, Ian Kermode, entered a basis of plea for his client, in which Quayle accepted he had used the homophobic word, but said that he did not recall saying it as he was drunk. He said that he was not homophobic.

Quayle accepted that when he walked over to the men his body language had been aggressive and that his abusive words had contributed to provoking the fight.

Quayle said that he had thrown punches but had also been punched himself.

He accepted that there had then been a lull but he had then thrown another punch.

Mr Kermode said that his client wanted to apologise to the victims.

The court heard that Quayle was still paying a fine for a previous offence.

Magistrates’ chair David Nash told Quayle: ’This was an unprovoked attack from someone who has a criminal record.’

Quayle was also ordered to pay £125 prosecution costs and will pay at a rate of £100 per week.

After Bratty appeared in court and was given a 10-month suspended sentence and put on probation for two years, his victims talked to the Manx Independent.

Alex Steffan-Cowell was left with three stitches and a concussion.

He had been on a night out with his husband, Marc Steffan-Cowell, who was also injured and bruised, but did not require stitches.

Alex, who is from Onchan, described the sentence as ’a joke’ in proportion to what Bratty had done - his kicks having also resulted in a scar and droopy eyelid.

’It makes it worse because obviously there’s no hate crime legislation in the island, so I think that’s probably why the sentencing was so light,’ he said.

’If we followed suit with the UK, and we did have it [the legislation] in the island, it probably would have been much worse [the sentencing], but the sentence he got was laughable.’

Alex added: ’For what he did - he [Bratty] punched Marc several times in the back of the head, then ended up punching me, then kicked me in the face while I was on the floor, and then kept punching Marc in the head again.

’You can do that and basically get a slap on the wrist and be told you’ve got to behave like a normal person for two years [under the probation order]’.

Such offence should carry custodial sentences, he believes.

Bratty’s advocate Paul Glover entered a basis of plea for his client in which Bratty disputed some of the prosecution facts - namely denying that homophobic comments were made toward the couple at the bus stop, and disputing that his kicks left Alex unconscious.

However, both victims told the Manx Independent that homophobic remarks were made during the attack.