The British theater student who claimed he was beaten by a group of homophobic thugs in a hate crime late last month is a liar, according to the Lancashire Evening Post.
The Post reports that Paddy O’Neill, the detective assigned to Richard Scott Kennedy’s case, has confirmed that CCTV footage revealed the horrific injuries Kennedy claimed were inflicted during a hate crime were actually the result of a nasty fall he took “after a night out.”
Kennedy “lost four of his teeth and required facial surgery” not because he was beaten, but because he fell face-first on the pavement. Alone:
CCTV revealed that UCLan student Richard Scott Kennedy, from Blackpool, fell face first after a night out.
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He had claimed he suffered verbal abuse after leaving the bar and his only recollection was waking up in the street, covered in blood with a battered face. He was found by friends and taken to hospital.
“We managed to recover some CCTV footage which shows the injured party falling face-first onto the pavement,” O’Neill told the Post. “We have showed him the CCTV and he now accepts his injuriries were caused during the fall. Having had oversight of the investigation since its inception and taking into account the full circumstances, I accept his report was made in good faith.”
Kennedy’s original Facebook post claiming he was a victim of a hate crime was still live at time of posting, with well over 150,000 “likes” and more than 180,000 shares. He has not yet offered a statement regarding the new developments.
Related: Five Gay Hoaxes That Had Us Fooled
David Venter
Maybe he was so embarrassed by causing his own fall that he decided to conveniently blame it on a hate crime in order to make others feel sorry for him? Still, no reason to lie. Not cool bro, not cool!
LadyL
What, another one?
I don’t know what to make of these hoaxters. Is this behavior some weird variation of Munchhausen syndrome by proxy or is this the only way they know how to bring public attention to real homophobia in their midst?
Mr. E. Jones
If he was being harassed inside the bar, and then woke up with a beaten face, and not remembering how it happened, then I don’t think it’s illogical for him to think he was bashed. Maybe he jumped the gun in claiming hate crime, but I don’t see this as an intentional lie.
Thomathy
Queerty says
The investigator as quoted by the Post
It’s not apparent that he’s a hoaxster at all. He was, it seems, honestly mistaken. People can become easily convinced of the stories they tell themselves to fill in a blackout period. Perhaps he shouldn’t have made such noise about an hate attack when it seems reasonable that he should have suspected his memories might not be accurate.
It just doesn’t seem that he was out to make himself a martyr, as in other cases. He’s accepted that he was wrong and, in a painful kind of funny, he fell while he was blackout drunk. If he recants as publicly as he supposed he was beaten, he’d still be ahead of those hoaxters were he one.
Cam
It sounds like he was somebody who got too damn drunk.
That said, those CCTV cameras must make some of the basics of Police work much easier over there since they seem to cover so much area!
Matthew Tharrett
@Thomathy: The definition of “apparent,” via Webster’s dictionary: “easy to see or understand.”
Police watch CCTV footage, see kid falling and being wounded as a result. I’d say that’s pretty easy to see or understand.
The definition of “hoax,” via Webster’s dictionary: “To trick into believing or accepting as genuine something false and often preposterous.”
Though I wouldn’t claim the possibility of a hate crime was preposterous, this kid did, in fact, “trick [the public] into believing or accepting [his story] as genuine” without knowing the full details himself. His intentions and the events leading up to his fall are irrelevant. He did not know what happened and reported that he was the victim of a hate crime.
An apparent hoaxster.
Stache1
@Cam: Yeah, not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed either.
balehead
He’d be perfect to go work for GLAAD…..
Merv
Hoax or drunken blackout, either way he’s pathetic.
Louis
He made a foolish error in judgement plain and simple.
Regardless as too why he did that the error still stands and he should take responsibility for this as well.
It makes this community look bad when people do things like this because it negates the importance and relevance of real hate crimes and their seriousness.
I can just some idiotic bigots using this as yet ANOTHER excuse too persecute us : oh they even lie about hate crimes happening.
You are young sir do the right thing and take responsibility for the mistake you made in this regard.
redcarpet
Ya know I was scrolling through my RSS feeds the other day and saw this and thought “Hmm, I don’t know what, but something doesn’t look right about this” just from the photo. I shrugged it off as me just being cynical or having a weird stray thought. If you think about it, not very many people would want to post a picture of their bloody face unless they were deeply narcissistic.
I am now going to trust my gut when ever I see someone who has a post-attack “selfie”. Gay or not.
Dan Leveille
I was questioning it when his original photo on Facebook asked people to “please like and share” it.
SpunkyBunks
Another case of some drunken fool kicking their own ass. Twinks, watch your liquor. You are embarrassing the rest of the gay community.
GeriHew
I say give the kid the benefit of the doubt. Someone probably verbally abused him in the bar, he got blind drunk, fell over and smashed his face up. Came round and filled in the blanks – rather dramatically.
Meanwhile in a genuine case of a man being brutally assaulted because he told someone he thought was his friend that he is bisexual, the assailant has now pleaded no contest to charges of felony assault and inflicting great bodily injury and he is due to be sentenced on May 7.
http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_25241336/san-mateo-no-contest-bike-lock-bisexual-beating
I emailed Queerty about this case months ago and they replied to my email but haven’t covered the story at all.
taoalwyn
Don’t judge the guy. We don’t know the background, all we’re receiving is a disconnected set of dots. He may deserve our sympathy for many reasons, none of which we’ll ever hear about.
Just be kind, and play nice…..
johnny
I am the first one to call fabricated hate crimes the work of idiots, HOWEVER, for those of you who didn’t read the article, making your judgements based on the misleading title, Detective O’Neill believes that Mr. Kennedy filed his report in good faith. If it is true that he was called names before his fall, one might find it a reasonable assumption that his injuries were a result of bashing. So, actually, I think that the use of the word “hoaxster” might be equally irresponsible. It implies that he consciously made up the story.
dbmyers
@redcarpet: I think you set your “hoaxster” detection filter too high. You seem to be suggesting that anyone posting a self-taken photo of their injuries is assumed to be lying, because anyone telling the truth would not take a picture of their own injuries. Seems simplistic at best . . . .
dbmyers
@GeriHew: I think your assessment of this story is the most likely series of events. Thanks for posting.