Youths jailed for gay killing

By Staff Writer, PinkNews.co.uk • January 23, 2006 - 0:00

All four youths were jailed for manslaughter

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Four people convicted of killing a gay London man in a "happy slapping" attack in 2004 have been handed long prison terms.

Reece Sargeant, 21, Darren Case, 18, and David Blenman, 17, were each given 12-year sentences in the unprovoked murder of David Morley. Chelsea O'Mahoney, who was 15 at the time, was sentenced to eight years.

Two other people charged in the case were found not guilty last year.

The gang is also believed to have been responsible for a series of other attacks on gay men in parks used for cruising.

The highlight of the trial was pictures of the attack taken by the 15 year old on her camera phone.

The video showed her asking Morley to "pose for the camera" and then the gang jumping on the 37-year-old and his friend, Alistair Whiteside.

Morley suffered serious head injuries in the attack. He died in hospital several hours later. Whiteside received only minor injuries.

At the conclusion of the video presentation in court prosecutor Richard Horwell told the jury that the gang was seeking "violence for its own sake." He compared the attack to the violence in Stanley Kubrick's film "A Clockwork Orange."

"It was random, indiscriminate violence for what can only have been pleasure," Horwell told the court.

Morley had been a survivor of 1999 Soho nail bomb attack on the Admiral Duncan pub in Soho.

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