Abuse left drag queen fearing for his life

A drag queen at the centre of a controversy over a children's storytelling event has opened up about the shock of finding out his image had been shared on so-called paedophile hunter websites.

Marcus Hunter-Neill, who performs as Lady Portia Di'Monte, said the incident, and abuse he received following a protest afterwards left him fearing for his life.

TalkTV broadcast footage from the protest along with what they now describe as "an unfounded allegation".

They have since paid Hunter-Neill substantial damages, retracted their comments and apologised for harm caused.

"There was a point I just did not want to be on this planet because it was just horrific," the activist and author told BBC News NI.

As part of the August 2025 Eastside Arts Festival in east Belfast, Drag Queen Storytime with BSL Interpretation featured Lady Portia and another drag queen.

They were escorted by police from the event at Holywood Arches Library after a crowd of protesters gathered outside.

Footage of the protest was then posted on social media.

BBC News NI has learned the event will not take place this year due to safety concerns.

Hunter-Neill said he could not understand why the controversy erupted last year as the event had been running for 10 years.

He said he stopped to talk to the protesters, to try and understand their concerns.

"I asked: 'What do you actually think happened in there?'

"How do you ever change hearts and minds? It's by having conversations and dialogue. It's me going, 'I 100% understand and empathise with you for protesting. You genuinely believed somewhere in your soul that terrible things were happening on the other side of this door.'

"But the truth is we played Simon Says and read two books and taught children how to say 'hello, how are you?' in sign language and that was it."

He said having to be brought home afterwards in a police car was like being in a "parallel universe".

"I walked to the event, waved into the local shops, the butchers and sweet shop and they're all waving back," he said.

"I was expecting to walk back and then I end up in the back of a police car in complete fight or flight mode, where I couldn't even speak, I couldn't form words, I couldn't remember where I lived or what my address was."

Hunter-Neill's solicitor Victoria Haddock, of Phoenix Law, described the settlement by TalkTV as a "vindication of my client's reputation".

He said the episode was a devastating blow at an already difficult time.

"At the same time, my dad had got diagnosed with stage four cancer days before this all happened so his first round of chemo and everything was happening when all of this was kicking off," he said.

"I was just trying to hold everything together for him and my family but even leaving my house to go to the car to get to go to the hospital I was petrified to walk from my front door to my car."

His father Billy, a former prison officer who managed the gym at the Maze Prison during the Troubles, died in December.

"The last physical conversation that I had with my dad, lucid, with breath in his body, was talking about this.

"Of all the things that I could have been talking to my dad about."

The controversy sparked a public debate.

In the days after the storytelling event, Communities Minister Gordon Lyons said he did not think the event was "appropriate" for children and "should not have taken place".

Lyons said it had "compromised the perception of our public libraries as a welcoming and inclusive space for all as set out in the Libraries NI policy".

Some believe drag is a form of adult entertainment and should not have taken place in the context of a library.

Marcus Hunter-Neill believes it teaches children that "difference does not equal dangerous".

"I would take part in an event like this 100 times over," he said.

"I would do it weekly if the opportunity was there simply because when you normalise difference then it's not a scary thing."

In a separate development, the actors' union, Equity, is to launch a UK-wide campaign against "political interference in the arts" in reaction to Lyons' comments last year.

Equity is the performing arts and entertainment trade union which has about 50,000 members in the UK.

Equity wrote an open letter to the minister following his comments. He responded last October, saying his position had not changed.

Earlier this month, at Equity's annual conference, a motion was passed referencing Lyons' comments.

It added: "In a position of power and influence, a minister's responsibility must extend beyond personal belief or party politics."

BBC News NI asked the Department for Communities for a response. A spokesperson instead directed us to the minister's letter to Equity of October 21, 2025.

He wrote: " While I respect your viewpoint on the matter, I maintain my position that the story telling event on Friday 1 August in Holywood Arches Library was not appropriate for children and should not have taken place."