January 8, 2022
Biphobia Blamed in Brutal Knife Attack
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 2 MIN.
An LGBTQ+ witness to a brutal knife attack in Britain says biphobia drove the "animalistic rage" of the 16-year-old perpetrator, news site Kent Online reported.
The victim, Megan Murphy, had been out with several friends last October 23 when her party encountered Jack Green, who was out with three companions of his own, at a pizzeria in Canterbury. Their interactions were cordial at first, but when it became known that one of Murphy's friends – a man named Lewis Eaves – was bisexual, things got ugly.
Murphy and her friends had left the pizzeria "when they noticed Green and four others behind them," the article recounted. Green's group then "smashed up a nearby telephone box and armed themselves with makeshift weapons," Kent Online detailed, and then approached Murphy and her friends in a confrontation that security cameras captured.
Green and his accomplices subjected Murphy and her friends to a sustained ordeal, hurling anti-LGBTQ+ slurs and violent threats, and pelting them with bricks and bottles, the court heard during the teenager's sentencing.
Security camera footage showed how "the groups stood face to face for about two minutes, with Green's group shouting abuse including 'she's feisty' and 'she's dead'," the article said, but the stabbing itself took place out of view of the camera.
The prosecutor James Benson, filled the court in on what the cameras did not record, describing how Green took a "curved blade" from his pocket and then "raised the knife over his head, Megan Murphy raised her hands to protect herself, she stepped backwards, and the defendant plunged the knife into her upper right chest."
Murphy talked about the scar the wound left, which she said would last "the rest of my life" – and she also told the court about the psychological scars she carries.
"Regularly I wake up in the middle of the night replaying the attack," Murphy testified, before adding: "I am a shadow of my former self."
The court also heard from Eaves, who described Green as being gripped by "animalistic rage,' " the report relayed. Eaves declared himself to have been "appalled by the biphobic attitude" of the teenager.
The judge agreed that anti-LGBTQ+ animus drove the attack, and said that "Lewis Eaves was physically targeted and called a derogatory word" by the young offender.
"You shouted homophobic abuse, you had a knife, and you used it," the judge told Green, before handing down a 54-month sentence.
Green's lawyer, Paul Jackson, told the court that his client was "deeply ashamed" and "remorseful," the article added.
Green "admitted wounding with intent at a hearing on 6 January 2022, having previously pleaded guilty to using threatening words or behavior," a post at the Kent Police website recounted.
The security camera video was instrumental in identifying Green, the Kent Police site said. He was arrested mere hours after the attack took place.
Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.
