NHS worker says his car was vandalised with paint stripper in homophobic attack in East Lothian

A NHS worker whose car was vandalised with paint stripper outside his home during the night believes he was victim to a homophobic attack.

Greg Mahony was in bed reading with his husband, Andy Pielorz, when their Honda Civic was targeted outside their Port Seton home at about 1:15am on Monday.

Mr Mahony, who works for NHS Lothian helping blind and deaf people with interpretation and translation, strongly suspects it was a homophobic attack because their car was the only one damaged in the street.

He told the Edinburgh Evening News: "It was motivated. He knew exactly where our car was. It's parked around a corner and he came right up to it.

Greg Mahony next to his damaged Honda Civic in Port Seton/ CCTV footage shows the car being vandalised.

"It makes us feel unsafe in our own home, that people can come up and target you like this. He was literally just outside as we were reading in bed."

Home CCTV footage shows what appears to be a male dressed in grey and wearing a face covering pouring paint stripper over the couple's car in Laburnum Street in the early hours of Monday, July 13th.

Mr Mahony, who was enjoying a relaxing week of annual leave at the time, noticed the damage at about 11am this morning when he went outside to take the dog for a walk.

The paint has been stripped from the roof of the car and there is also damage to the bonnet - and Mr Mahony reckons it will cost several hundred pounds to repair.

Greg Mahony next to his damaged Honda Civic.

A police spokesperson said: “Around 11:40am, police received a report of a car being damaged in Laburnum Avenue, in East Lothian and enquiries are ongoing.”

It is not yet known if police are treating the incident as a hate crime.

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Some of the damage to the roof of his Honda car.

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