A Derry mum has spoken out after she was the victim of an alleged racist and homophobic attack in the city earlier this year.
The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous due to safety fears for her daughter, said the attack took place in the Inch View area during the early hours of July 11.
The mum-of-one is alleging that a single individual attacked her home and a neighbour's car with eggs and graffiti. It's left her unwilling to return to the property.
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Meanwhile, it's also alleged that during the unprovoked attack the perpetrator smeared faeces over the front of the property, including a door handle, and wrote a racist statement with a marker on a car in the vicinity.
A police report was made and they confirmed to MyDerry that the attack was being investigated as a homophobic and racist hate crime.
Speaking to MyDerry , the local mum said: "It's extremely frightening knowing someone is still out there who has such a dislike for you that they are willing to do something like this to your home is terrifying.
"I have never done anything to them so I don’t understand how he could put me and my family through something like this. It’s gotten to the point where I don’t want to go anywhere in Derry on my own anymore.
"It’s left me so shaken up, I’m afraid he will return so I have been staying at a safe place until we’re in the position to sell.
"I haven’t really told my daughter much about the incident in order to protect her. Obviously, this is a very traumatic thing for an adult to have to endure never mind a child.
"I hope they can find a way to unlearn the hatred they have in their heart for people who are different from them. "
Meanwhile, the victim said the incident wasn't the first time that she experienced racism in the city, adding that she experienced more 'causal racism' in the past.
"Racism is a scale," she continued. "Incidents like the one I experienced in July being one end of the scale, the extreme end, and don’t happen as often, but then the other side of that scale is the more casual racism like constant hair touching, the comments from strangers asking where am I really from.
"I’ve lived in Derry my whole life, and even if I hadn't it makes you feel like a second-class citizen because people judge you and interpret you all the time based on how you look instead of how you act or treat others.
"Put it this way, I haven’t had a night out in Derry where I haven’t experienced some form of racism in some way or another."
A spokesperson for the PSNI said that their investigation was continuing, encouraging anyone with information to come forward.
"There is no place for hate in our communities," PSNI Inspector Ryan Robb said. "As we continue to investigate this incident, we are appealing for anyone with information or anyone who knows who is responsible to come forward and speak with us."
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