Gay victim ‘was called a batty man’
The gay man who died after being attacked in Trafalgar Square last autumn was called a “batty man” before he was kicked and stamped on, the Old Bailey heard.
Ian Baynham, 62, died in hospital on October 13th 2009, several weeks after he suffered head injuries while on a night out.
Joel Alexander, 19, of Thornton Heath, south London, Rachel Burke, 18, of Three Oaks, East Sussex, and Ruby Thomas, 18, of Lichfield, Staffs, all deny manslaughter, while Burke denies a separate charge of committing actual bodily harm.
Today, the Old Bailey heard that Mr Baynham fell “like a corpse” when Alexander allegedly punched him.
The victim had been walking through Trafalgar Square holding hands with a male friend, Phillip Brown.
Thomas, who was sitting on a wall, then allegedly started shouting homophobic abuse at the pair, calling them “batty men” and “faggots”.
Mr Baynham is said to have challenged her and was then floored by a punch from Alexander.
Alexander allegedly walked off while Mr Baynham was left on the ground.
Eyewitnesses said that the two girls than began kicking and stamping on the victim in the head and chest as he lay unconscious and bleeding.
When Burke and Thomas ran off, Mr Brown gave chase and pulled Burke to the ground by her hair, the court heard.
But a passerby thought he was attacking her and separated them as she punched Mr Brown in the face.
The three are then said to have fled to the South Bank before returning to their respective homes.
Yesterday, prosecutor Brian Altman QC compared the alleged incident to scenes of violence from A Clockwork Orange, the 1970s film which caused outrage on its release.
He said: “The story of this case is an all too familiar depressing tale of drunken, loutish behaviour, but what these defendants did that night went far beyond mere antisocial behaviour.
“Two of them are teenage girls, fuelled by copious amounts of alcohol. They confronted Mr Baynham with abuse and then together with Joel Alexander they jointly participated in a violent attack on a defenceless man in public.”
The trial continues.
