Watch | Man charged with assaulting gay couple claims he is the “real victim”

A man charged with attacking a gay couple in a New York City restaurant said he only did it because he had “feared for his life.”

Earlier this year, a disturbing online video of the attack emerged, showing gay couple Ethan York-Adams, 25, and Jonathan Snipes, 32, assaulted at the Dallas BBQ restaurant in New York’s Chelsea neighbourhood, reports Pink News.

After being hit repeatedly, the couple were allegedly thrown to the ground and kicked by 41-year-old Bronx resident Banya El-Amin, who used anti-gay slurs and then attacked them both with a chair.

The couple said they were targeted as victims of the attack based on their sexuality on the evening of May 5, at around 11pm.

After Snipes received a text about a death in his family, the assault was instigated as he accidentally knocked over a drink while rushing to leave the venue.

He said they were called “white faggots”, had a tooth knocked loose, bruised his head, and had snapped cartilage in his ear.

“These guys attacked us specifically because they knew we weren’t their type of people,” he said.

But El-Amin, claims he was set up to look like a “homophobic hate criminal”, and his “only crime was to be a man of colour wrongly accused by his attacker, a privileged white man.”

El-Amin, also gay, planned to sue the couple over their “false claims” which have “destroyed his life.”

He has alleged in a Manhattan Supreme Court Claim complaint he was first attacked by Snipes and fearing for his life during the incident, was “left with no choice,” but to throw the chair at his attackers, knocking them to the ground and giving him enough time safely to retreat from the restaurant.

El-Amin also claims the video of the attack was edited.

After the video went viral, he said he was left “completely isolated and ostracised from society” and had to go into hiding after receiving death threats.

He is seeking damages for assault and battery against Snipes and York-Adams, negligence against the restaurant, and defamation against several witnesses to the attack.

Watch the full video of the attack below. Warning, the footage is distressing.