Two men punched in the face in violent homophobic attack in Sheffield

Police have released a CCTV still of a man and a woman they want to speak to as part of their inquiries into the assault last month.

The victims were walking along Surrey Street towards the train station when they were assaulted around 1.30am on Saturday 13 August.

Both were punched in the face and one of them fell to the floor, where it is believed he was then kicked.

The two victims are understood to have been subjected to homophobic abuse during the assault and officers are investigating the incident as a hate crime.

Officers believe the man and woman in the CCTV image could hold “vital” information and are appealing to them, or anyone who recognises them, to get in touch.

There were 124,091 hate crimes recorded by police in England and Wales in year to March 2021.

The most recently available data shows the number of hate crimes reported to South Yorkshire Police between the financial years 2019/20 and 2020/21 increased in almost all categories, except for those relating to transgender people, for which there was a 12 per cent decrease.

The Government figures reveal that the total number of hate crimes reported to SYP increased by 15 per cent, rising from 2,931 in 2019/20 to 3,383 in 2020/21.

During the same period, the number of hate crimes relating to race increased by 22 per cent; hate crimes relating to religion rose by 9 per cent; reported crimes relating to sexuality increased by 3 per cent and disability-related hate crimes increased by 17 per cent.