A woman showed a court a picture of a rainbow-coloured tattoo on her bum to prove that she wasn’t guilty of a homophobic attack.
Lauren Proverbs presented the jury with a flower-shaped tattoo in rainbow colours and said it showed her support for homosexual and lesbian causes.
The 21-year-old, on trial at Luton Crown Court earlier this month, said she got the tattoo on holiday in Spain in 2008 while in a lesbian relationship.
Proverbs is accused of shouting abuse at Gina Landon, but insists she was acting in self defence.
The defendant and a friend got into a row with Landon, her girlfriend and girlfriend’s sister outside a takeaway in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire.
The court heard that Proverbs turned to the trio, demanding to know what they had said about her friend.
Landon said: “My response was, ‘if you don’t mind, I am talking to my girlfriend.’ She [Proverbs] called me a fucking dyke and a fucking lesbian.”
Landon also told the court that Proverbs called her girlfriend “fucking Polish” and said she would “have her”.
The groups were ushered outside by staff from the takeaway where Landon said Proverbs punched her in the face.
Landon added: “I was slightly delirious at the time but I remember her picking up her foot and stamping down really hard on my ribs.”
Proverbs said she only threw one punch to protect herself and her friend and insists Landon was the aggressor.
The jury failed to reach a verdict in court but Judge Stephen Farrell QC decided today that Proverbs was not guilty. There will not be a retrial.
