Two men were viciously attacked with hurls in Laois and they believe that the attackers had a homophobic motive.

Married couple Collie Aquino Teixeira McQuillan and Gui A McQuillan sustained extensive facial injuries after three men in their late teens to early 20’s attacked them as they walked home from a family BBQ during the early hours of June 10.

Collie (30) spoke to the Irish Daily Star about how he was attacked while trying to protect his husband, Gui (24).

He said: “I was walking home with my husband from a family BBQ when we were met by a group of people that passed a comment at my husband and he didn’t understand what they said.

“So he said ‘what’ and this time they crossed the road towards him and myself and hit him with a hurley.

“I tried to stop them and I grabbed the stick while they attempted to hit me with it. Then another guy came out of nowhere and smashed me in the face.

“I called to my husband and told him to run. At this point, I was knocked out and then savagely beaten on my body and face.”

Collie believes this was a homophobic attack telling the Star:

“I think because my husband was drunk, he is feminine in his actions and they said something about it and due to him responding yes, I do think it was gay bashing.

“They left me in a pool of blood, it was caught on CCTV and they know what they were doing.”

Following the attack, both Collie and Gui were taken to Portlaoise General Hospital with Collie later being transferred to St James hospital in Dublin to treat severe injuries to his face, jaw and teeth.

Reports at the time of the incident state that Collie’s face was “smashed and bloodied beyond recognition, with an extremely swollen and protruding upper lip as well as extensive cuts and bruises to his lower face and jaw. His front teeth were also knocked out.”

The medical expenses are likely to cost the McQuillian’s around €8,000 and he has set up a GoFundMe Page to try and cover some of the costs.

On his GoFundMe page, Collie spoke about the emotional impact the attack has had on him.

“I have an upper and lower broken jaw. My lower jawline has splintered bone and I have lost 2 teeth and another 2 teeth have been broken in half. Due to the impact, there is nerve damage to my teeth and will require root canals to save them.

“The cost of both medical and dental repairs is about €8000 and I’m hoping to raise at least half of this amount. Please if you can help with any donation at all nothing is too small it would mean the world to me as this has been a huge knock to my confidence and has caused a lot of emotional stress and physical pain.”

Although Gui was hurt, his husband sustained more severe physical wounds. Gui, who is originally from Brazil, posted an emotional status on Facebook talking about his husband’s injuries and the struggle to understand the senseless act:

“So with the physical pain, comes the depression. We still can’t believe that this happened, what kinda of people does that? We just don’t understand.”

Gardaí have confirmed that they are investigating the incident.