Shocking moment celebrity drag star The Vivienne who won the first series of RuPaul’s Drag Race is punched in the face inside McDonald’s in vicious homophobic attack

• Alan Whitfield admitted assault on drag queen star James Lee Williams
• 51-year-old denied the attack on Edge Lane in Liverpool was homophobic 
• Former scaffolder will now be sentenced on January 3 

This is the shocking moment celebrity drag star The Vivienne was punched in the face in a McDonald’s as part of a violent homophobic attack. 

Alan Whitfield admitted assault by beating on James Lee Williams, who performs as drag queen The Vivienne, but denied that it was homophobic.

The 51-year-old claimed he had ‘banter’ with the RuPaul’s Drag Race UK series one winner because he thought he looked like an Oompa Loompa from the film Charlie And The Chocolate Factory. 

However, Liverpool Magistrates’ Court found the attack to have been motivated by homophobia on Friday. 

Speaking during the trial, Mr Williams said he had been subjected to a ‘barrage of abuse’ from Whitfield after entering the McDonald’s on Edge Lane in Liverpool on June 16. 

Alan Whitfield admitted assault by beating on James Lee Williams, who performs as drag queen The Vivienne, but denied that it was homophobic

Speaking during the trial, Mr Williams said he had been subjected to a ‘barrage of abuse’ from Whitfield after entering the McDonald’s on Edge Lane in Liverpool on June 16

He said: ‘He carried on, then after the fourth ‘look at the state of you’ I said ‘look at the state of you’, I said ‘look at the state of your face’, to which he said ‘I’ve got skin cancer’ and then punched me straight in the face.’ 

The 31-year-old, who came in Dancing On Ice earlier this year, said he was used to ‘looks’ and ‘stares’ due to way he ‘flamboyant[ly]’ dressed, but things had never before reached the point they did on the day of the assault. 

Mr Williams continued : ‘There were countless other people in the branch of McDonald’s that day, why didn’t he start on anyone else? Why did he choose to publicly humiliate me and then hit me, if it wasn’t for my image or me being quite evidently gay?’ 

In a 999 call which was played to the jury, Mr Williams said: ‘He obviously knew I was gay, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist.’ 

Mr Whitfield told the court his attention was drawn to the drag star because of his dyed green hair. 

The defendant said he asked him: ‘What have you come as, an Oompa Loompa?’ 

Mr Whitfield who was working as a scaffolder at the time, said the remarks were ‘banter’ and claimed he did not know Mr Williams was gay, or see a handbag he was carrying. 

He said he struck Mr Williams after was made ‘very very angry’ by having marks on  his face from skin cancer pointed out. 

Mr Whitfield who was working as a scaffolder at the time, said the remarks were ‘banter’ and claimed he did not know Mr Williams was gay, or see a handbag he was carrying

In his evidence, Mr Williams accepted pointing out marks on Whitfield’s face and responding when he told him he had skin cancer by saying: ‘Made up for you.’ 

Mr Williams told the court: ‘For that I truly apologise, that must have hurt, that was never intended.’ 

After retiring to deliberate, chairman of the bench Anthony Canning said: ‘Having considered this incident from beginning to end, we believe beyond reasonable doubt that the hostility shown by yourself from the outset was motivated and down to the perceived sexuality of the complainant and this was homophobic in nature.’

As he left the court, Whitfield said: ‘Joke. Bulls***. Where’s the hate crime for my cancer?’

Whitfield, of Tom Mann Close, Liverpool, will be sentenced on January 3. 

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