A transgender woman was left covered in blood after being randomly attacked in a bar.

Anna Montgomery, 20, says she was enjoying a ‘lovely night’ with her boyfriend when she was ‘suddenly’ hit in the face in Belfast last weekend.

The young woman, from County Down in Northern Ireland, was left feeling ‘fragile’ after the alleged assault, with a ‘smashed up’ nose, bruising to her face and a cut forehead.

Anna and partner Jamie had headed down to the Church Lane area of the city to have dinner and a few drinks on Saturday night.

They’d had a ‘fantastic’ meal and had made friends with ‘some absolutely amazing girls’ when someone smacked Anna in the face.

She told Belfast Live: ‘There was a lot of blood over my face and my clothes and the top of my forehead was cut, my nose is very smashed up and I have a lot of bruising.

‘It happened so quickly, it was just so sly and sneaky. I’ve never felt more humiliated in my whole life. It ruined our whole night.’

Police are currently investigating the alleged incident and say they are treating it as a hate crime.

Anna says it is not the first time she has been randomly targeted and ‘hopes no one has to go through what I went through on Saturday night’.

She has thanked her boyfriend, friends and staff at the restaurant for helping her get through the night.

She said: ‘I just don’t understand how someone could treat any person like the way I was treated… It’s just so sad it’s the year 2020 and I am a trans woman getting assaulted for just being me. I feel sorry for the person who assaulted me.’

A PSNI spokesman said: ‘Police are investigating the report of an assault in the Church Lane area of Belfast on Saturday, 26 September. Enquiries are continuing into this matter, which is being treated as a hate crime.’

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