A lesbian couple was brutally assaulted in front of their six-year-old son and his classmates in the parking lot of an Oshawa elementary school on Nov 3.

Anji Dimitriou, who is recovering from a broken spine suffered in a car accident, and Jane Currie were picking their three children up from Gordon B Attersley Elementary School when a man allegedly attacked them.

Currie says they had just parked their truck when a man approached. Dimitriou says she and Currie recognized him from previous encounters. She says he previously blocked their access to a handicapped parking spot and called them "fucking dykes."

"He made a beeline straight for Anji," says Currie. "I could see him getting angrier and angrier. He said to Anji, 'Which of you two men spoke to my kid? Fucking dyke lesbians.' I jumped out and just as I came around he spit right in her face. She wiped the spit off and he punched her in the face and hit her again in the back of the head.

"She was yelling obscenities and another father tried to shoulder him out of the way. Then he smacked me. My cheek burst with the force of the impact. He's about 6'4" or 6'5" and 250 pounds and we're both about 5'2". His fist was probably half the size of my head.

"My face was bleeding profusely everywhere. All these children who had just finished school had to see all this blood. They were screaming, including my own son who was up close and personal. They were devastated, hysterical. His own child saw this."

Currie says their two daughters, six and seven, came out of the school just in time to see their parents' bloody faces.

"They were terrified," she says. "They didn't know where to go."

Currie says the man was collecting his children and preparing to leave when the school principal came out and told him to wait in her office until the police arrived.

"He said, 'Fine,'" says Currie. "He didn't think he had done anything wrong."

Currie says she and Dimitriou were taken to hospital.

"The right side of my face is swollen," says Currie. "There are stitches in my eye. My face is bruised up and down. With Anji we're waiting to see if the spots in front of her eyes go away. Her sight doubles when she looks up or down. He hit her so hard she bounced off the truck and reinjured the muscles around her spine. We've contacted the Criminal Compensation Board.

"But the worst is the mental side and the children. We took them to see a therapist on the Wednesday."

"We have to show them every night how the alarm will go off," she says. "We went to Zellers and they didn't want to get out of the truck. 'What if he's in Zellers?' they asked. 'What if he comes back to the school and comes after us?'"

Dimitriou says the alleged assault has also been devastating for other children at the school and their parents.

"The principal says he's done more damage than just beating us," she says. "Parents and students are terrified."

Dimitriou says the main emotion she's feeling at the moment is rage.

"I'm angry," she says. "I just moved up here two years ago. I lived in Toronto my whole life. I never had anybody call me a dyke or make remarks to my children."

She says the couple is considering a civil suit against their alleged assailant.

Mark Scott, 43, of Oshawa faces two charges of assault causing bodily harm in connection with the incident. He is scheduled to make his first court appearance on Dec 16.