A jury in Bermuda heard testimony last week concerning an alleged antigay hate crime that left one man with fractured facial bones and a two-inch gash over his eye, the Bermuda Sun reports.
According to medical evidence presented Thursday in the island nation's supreme court, the victim, Shawn Nusum, had his cheek and jaw broken in the machete assault, while his nose was fractured and his ability to raise the injured eyebrow impaired.
The defendant, Rashad David George Cooper, is charged with carrying a machete in public and unlawfully wounding Nusum with intent to do him grievous bodily harm. Cooper denies both charges, telling the jury that another man inflicted the injuries on Nusum.
Nusum told jurors earlier that Cooper had taunted him on several earlier occasions for being gay, calling him "f****t" and other slurs. The taunts escalated into the attack in the early morning of November 15 in a nightclub parking lot in the town of St. George, following an argument between the men inside the club, Nusum testified. Nusum said that as he was walking toward his motorcycle, Cooper approached him and slashed him around the face with a machete.
Cooper said he was at the club that night and indeed argued with Nusum, but he said a man named Kent was Nusum's attacker.
Further testimony is expected throughout this week. (The Advocate)
