FORMER X FACTOR contestant and Southampton Solent student Bradley Hunt was injured by thugs in a homophobic nightclub attack.

Bradley Hunt who performed alongside Ottavio Columbro in the hit ITV show in 2016 has spoken out after he was attacked in Pop World by three thugs after they confronted him about his dancing.

The attack left the former Southampton Solent student sobbing in the clubs beer cellar with a black eye, damaged teeth and cuts to his nose, cheekbone and forehead.

In an online video Bradley said: " I was flicking my neck, doing my dance moves and this guy came up to me. He said, 'Can you stop dancing like that?

"Now I think he was trying to show off to some girls, something like that, and I'm thinking, 'babes, the girls are loving my dancing.

"Like, they ain't bothered at you trying to put me down, you ain't gonna get a girl that way. Just saying'.

"Anyway, I said to him, 'don't tell me what to do', and I thought, you don't tell somebody what to do, especially in a club - it's Pop World! You don't tell someone to stop dancing like that, I'm sorry, if you don't like it, go somewhere else.

"Then came the smash right into the nose, then two of his mates on either side ricocheting, punching, thumping me, I've never been hit before and the pain absolutely killed."

Speaking about how he felt after the attack Bradley added: "I had an instant headache and I absolutely panicked, I was screaming. I ran to the bar crying, I can feel one of teeth half of it in my hands, blood.

"I jumped over the bar because I was so scared, ran down to the beer cellar and was on the floor in tears, panicking.

"Obviously I was drunk and it just came as a shock to me.

"I called the police, they came and actually managed to find one of them round the corner and arrested him.

And he stayed in the cell for a night but other than that nothing really happened.

" I did a statement at the police station but what can you do?"

The former X factor contestant who made it through to the live shows said: "Homophobia's still here. With me, some people recognise me so there's a level of, they can say a joke, the can stare, they can laugh, that's fine.

"I've been on the TV, I was the joke act, you can laugh and stare. But when people say 'batty boy', 'queer' or anything like that, or try and intimidate me, nah.

"I don't tolerate it."