MP Chris Elmore was 'horrifically' attacked in school

A Welsh Labour MP has said he needed minor facial reconstruction surgery and suffered a breakdown after being "horrifically assaulted" in school.

Ogmore MP Chris Elmore said he required mental health support several times and had surgery aged 17 when seven school friends attacked him on the false premise that he was "a gayer".

He spoke in a Commons debate on sexual harassment and violence in schools.

Mr Elmore said abuse in schools has a "huge" effect on mental health.

"I speak as someone who was never sexually assaulted in school but I was horrifically assaulted in school to the point where I was hospitalised several times, received mental health support for what would be considered a breakdown at the age of 14, at the age of 16, and at the age of 17," he said.

"I know all too well the horrors of being attacked for supposedly, as it would happen being a homosexual, to which I am not.

"And if I was so what.

"But that was the rationale for me being attacked to the point where I was finally assaulted and hospitalised, at the age of 17, that involved minor reconstruction to part of my face.

"I was assaulted in a friend's home by seven school friends based on the premise that I was, I should keep this within parliamentary language, a gayer, and therefore I deserved the attacks that I received as a 17-year-old boy."

Mr Elmore told MPs abuse in schools "leaves lasting scars on girls, and on some boys, in terms of when they move then into the workplace".

"And for those who have committed those offences, or offences in my view, they think it's then acceptable as I say for a society to carry on doing that," he added.