A young, gay Liverpool police officer is still in a critical condition as friends and family prepare to hold vigil and his six attackers are granted bail.

22-year-old James Parkes [pictured right] was out with his boyfriend and friends at Liverpool’s gay nightclub area on Sunday night. At around 10pm, an estimated 13 young men, between the ages of 14 and 17, followed the group and taunted them with homophobic language before attacking the group, leaving Parkes with a fractured skull and cheek bones.

“We are treating the assault as a homophobic hate crime and this incident shows there are still some people who have not learnt that crimes of this type are completely unacceptable,” says Detective Cheif Inspector Tim Keelan.

Six young men were arrested shortly after the incident and recently received bail. Police have increased patrols in the area called the ‘heart of the gay community’ where the attack occurred and have asked any possible witnesses to come forward in order to strengthen their case against the men.

“People who commit hate crimes can expect the full attention of the police and we will not rest until the offenders are brought to justice. The offenders will learn their lesson the hard way,” Keelan told PinkNews.co.uk.

Some reports indicate that Parkes told the group of men he was a police officer and for them to stop the attack. Overwhelmed by the group, Parkes and his friends ran from the scene, but the men caught Parkes, proceeding to punch and kick him.

Parkes, who joined the police force in May of this year, is still in a critical condition at a local hospital. Friends, family and community members are holding a vigil for the injured Parkes this Sunday. Hundreds of supporters are expected to attend.

Parkes’ parents have publicly thanked the community for its support of their son, saying, “We can’t believe the ignorance of the young people who carried out the attack on someone who was just out on a night out with friends and had done nothing wrong.”

Paul Martin, chief executive of the north-west-based Lesbian & Gay Foundation spoke to the BBC about the incident:

“We have to wake up to homophobic hate crime. How many more attacks do there have to be before this issue is taken seriously?

“We must encourage everyone to be vigilant and report hate crimes and incidents, as there has to be an absolute zero tolerance to homophobia wherever it occurs.

“Yet again the perpetrators of this attack are of school age or have recently left school. What message is being sent to them that it is acceptable to attack others because they may be different?”