Girls accused of killing gay man in attack like Clockwork Orange

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Girls accused of killing gay man in attack like Clockwork Orange

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article7102008.ece



Ruby Thomas



Rachel Burke



Ian Baynham

Two drunken teenage girls kicked a man so badly as he lay unconscious during their homophobic attack that he later died, a court heard.

Ruby Thomas and Rachel Burke, both 18, stamped on Ian Baynham’s chest and kicked him in the head after their friend Joel Alexander, 19, had punched him to the ground, knocking him unconscious, the Old Bailey was told.

As Mr Baynham lay bleeding the teenagers continued to assault him, it was said, causing him to suffer a fit from brain damage after his skull had been fractured.

When Mr Baynham’s friend stepped in to try to save him, Ms Burke attacked him too, punching him in the face, the jury was told.

The three alleged killers fled from the scene and Mr Baynham was taken to hospital in East London, but he never regained consciousness and died 18 days after the attack in September last year.

Brian Altman, QC, for the prosecution, told jurors that Mr Baynham and Philip Brown were walking through Trafalgar Square, in Central London, “minding their own business”.

[Oceansaway]

1. sick fuks !...n/t

[secondwind]

2. I have no words, except to say : what kind of sick world are we living in? For the love of God!

[Kind of Blue]

3. Good God, I can't believe I just read that.

I hope Baynham can rest in peace but do not want the same for those 2 bitches and that bastard. I'm beyond saddened for him. I'm so sorry.

[HughMoran]

4. Fucking sick people

...may the rest of their days behind bars be a living hell for them.

[Name removed]

18. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[The Backlash Cometh]

5. I would love to get into their heads to try to figure out what they were thinking.

[RollWithIt]

6. I'm not getting the clockwork orange reference

So anyone who gets beat to death is like a clockwork orange? Anyways, horrible story.

[peekaloo]

8. an onlooker made that observation.

I thought maybe the killers used it as a reference.

[edbermac]

23. Were they wearing codpieces and bowler hats?

And were they dancing to Singing In The Rain?

[myrna minx]

7. Oh god.

:cry:

[ProgressiveProfessor]

9. Armed gays don't get bashed

I normally don't jump in with something that inflammatory, but it is the cold truth, though in the UK, self defense laws are such that if he had defended himself, even with his hands, he would be in the dock, not them.

Part of my anger this AM is that I teach self defense, armed and unarmed, mostly to women and GLBTs. I learned this AM that one of my students for next weekend was hospitalized last night after being attacked. She knew she was at risk but had delayed getting any training since she was "busy". Hopefully the physical scars heal well, the internal ones never really do.

Hopefully my attitude will improve later today...its not been a good start.

[Javaman]

11. So...

this guy died because he didn't know how to defend himself?

is that what you are saying?

Please, tell me that you are kidding, okay?

Please, tell me that those two little fucks are the ones responsible.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

19. Not at all...

Per the story there was a guy who dropped the victim, and I assume he is in the dock as well. They bear total responsibility for the attack. Still I have to wonder if the victim had some training if the outcome would not have been different.

For many reasons the weaker/vulnerable/targeted members of society are often the least prepared to defend themselves. I actively work to address that need. Gay bashing, attacks on women and the elderly...just make my blood boil, and sometimes it spills over. I am mostly venting this AM.

UK actively discourages self defense. Its what gives the yobs the license they have. Also few Europeans will intervene in such things, even less than in the urban US. Being unwilling to come to the aid and defense of another also frustrates me. Those who stand by and let such things happen have some moral responsibility for the outcome. That is my experience, YMMV

[Javaman]

30. Thanks for clarifying.

Cheers.

Given the fact that the victim was homeless, I can only postulate that he was 1) in a weakened condition 2) ill equipped to deal with other members of society due to social outcasting 3) will perceive of himself as being and easy target thus making him an easy target.

Stories of this like happened often here in the states, sadly and seem to be on the uptick.

Perhaps, self defense training would have helped, but often in times of stress and trauma, people don't know how they will act and behave.

Also to, people of little means, rarely if ever have the opportunity or time to take a self defense class. And because this man was homeless, I don't think he had the means.

We all would like to think that we would jump into the fray to help, but not everyone is like that.

However, calling 911 (US emergency phone number), takes little to no effort.

I don't know what will happen to these two women, but I do hope they are in prison for a very long time.

[and-justice-for-all]

22. I understand where you are coming from...

I feel sorry for the bigot fucker who tries some shit with my partner and I..Gays with guns and all.

How could he have been attacked like that and no one step in and stop it? Why would he allow those two wenches to over power him? The fact they were in a public place and no one stepped in to stop it is mind blowing.

[Dappleganger]

27. +1000 nt

[Brickbat]

10. I know it's the given headline, but let's remember to not infantalize these grown women. I don't

know why the prosecution is calling them girls, either -- what's the age of adulthood in Britain?

[enlightenment]

14. 16/18, depending on what you're discussing.

But referring to them as 'girls' is not an attempt to infantilize them. It's common terminology in the UK - even after women reach an age (like my own *cough*) where it seems slightly ludicrous.

A slight cultural difference in word usage.

Personally, I would call those two something entirely different - but that wouldn't be allowed in print.

[Brickbat]

15. Thanks for the info.

And yeah, I understand the "girls" usage among friends or in speech, but that's against newspaper style in the U.S. (usually). Having said that, I do know what British journalism is like, having worked for a newspaper based on British style, and then once writing a report for (gasp) the Daily Mail.

[enlightenment]

25. Oh my! You had to write a piece for the Fail?

Do they have a special thesaurus of 'hyperbolic and overblown' words? I've always wondered . . . :)

[Brickbat]

26. It was painful! But I can be bought.

;)

I was providing an on-the-ground color bit for a story about a murder. A friend of mine who was familiar with the Mail (I was not) told me to write it as over-the-top as possible. I provided 500 words and was paid $1 a word, which is an amazing rate now for what I was doing, and even more so in 1995, when I did it. No byline -- thankfully!

[enlightenment]

29. At least they paid well.

For that I could be bought . . . I'm sure I could invent some heart-rending tale of youthful indiscretion followed by years of painful remorse!

[WI_DEM]

12. enjoy prison ladies (hopefully they will get prison time).

[ProgressiveProfessor]

13. Its the UK, don't get your hopes up about serious punishment

[enlightenment]

16. They might surprise you. Seems like tolerance for this kind of

behaviour is reaching an end. I hope so, anyway.

My son has applied to read Social Work in the UK, because he wants to work (primarily) with transgendered youth there. I'm both delighted with his choice and alarmed at the potential for danger that he places himself in by doing so - but quite honestly, he is in just as much danger in the US.

Yobs are not country specific, unfortunately.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

20. At least in the US you can fight back against the yobs with little fear of Government reprisals

If you do that in the UK, just make sure you can not be identified easily (BTDT)

[enlightenment]

24. Well, that's something he wants to work to change.

Bring a little more equity to the system in the UK.

[QC]

17. They might get sent to bed without any supper.

By UK standards, that is mighty rough punishment indeed.

[proteus_lives]

32. Or throughout Europe.

10 years for murder is the going rate. Astonishing isn't it?

[Flaneur]

34. Yet they don't have any more murders than we do, probably less.

Maybe we over-sentence over here. Just saying.

[proteus_lives]

35. So how much is one life worth?

If a person murders another person in cold blood, how much time should they get?

[ProgressiveProfessor]

38. Saw some stats that IIRC on a pro rata basis the crime rates were higher is some countries.

Have to find it again and post it, presuming it was not just cranial flatulence.

[Blue Diadem]

21. How awful. There's more...seems Ms. Thomas lied to her boyfriend

at first, telling him she'd been involved in a fight with some black boys on a bus. She claimed she had no idea where her shoes were, but they were found on the garden wall with Mr.Baynham's blood on them.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23826328-girl-18-kicked-mans-head-so-hard-she-left-bllod-on-her-shoes.do

RIP Mr. Baynham I'm sorry our world is so hateful and I hope those who did this receive the most severe punishment.

edited to add snips from original link, apparently the story has been updated and changed:

snip: The drunken girls had goaded Mr Baynham about his homosexuality after they saw him holding hands with his friend Philip Brown.

When Thomas met her boyfriend later she had two black eyes and her handbag was ripped. She told him she had been on a fight with “black boys” on a bus. But she later admitted she had been involved in a argument “with a bloke” and someone had hit him.

The day after Mr Baynham died she called her boyfriend, telling him “that the bloke had died and they had pictures of her in the Standard”, said prosecutor Brian Altman, QC. Thomas added “they thought she had done it”.

snip: Her ballet pumps were later found on a wall in the garden. Thomas said she did not know where they were but later admitted she had taken them off in the garden but “didn't know why”. Spots of Mr Baynham's blood were found on the heel and toe of the right pump.

[Solly Mack]

28. Sick fucks.

[Dorian Gray]

Horrific

I will never understand the likes of people like this. Absolutely horrifying.

[Dorian Gray]

31. Horrific

I will never understand the likes of people like this. Absolutely horrifying.

[FiveGoodMen]

33. We'd never see this kind of violence if women ran the world...

They're nuturing and caring and sensible...

Huh?

Oh.

Yeah, that's right.

[joeglow3]

36. Wow. Ruby is hot.

Looks like Christmas is coming for all her future fellow inmates. Wonder if her and Rachel will attempt to beat each other to death after getting passed around a few times.

[lala_rawraw]

37. I think the girls will be very popular

in prison... in fact, I am praying for it. sick, twisted, white-power barbies