October 16, 2009
Two Girls, Boy Arrested in Fatal London Gay Bashing
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 2 MIN.
Police have apprehended three suspects in the fatal beating of a gay man in London last month.
The victim, 62-year-old Ian Baynham, died following and attack by three teens who shouted anti-gay epithets as they kicked and beat Baynham, was was openly gay, according to reports in the British media.
GLBT site Pink News reported on the arrests in an Oct. 16 article.
The attack took place in Trafalgar Square on Sept. 25. According to media reports, the three teens were acting rudely and shouting profanity. When Baynham confronted the teens about their behavior, the beating commenced.
Baynham had just been hired as a civil servant with the U.K. Border Agency after a long job hunt, the media reported. He was out with a friend to celebrate when the encounter took place.
Baynham suffered brain damage in the attack and was on a respirator; the machines were turned off after two weeks, and Baynham died on Oct. 13.
The female suspects, both 17, and the male suspect, 18, were subsequently apprehended at a London home.
The Pink News article quoted Detective chief inspector Clive Heys' comment to the Evening Standard. "I don't criticize Mr Baynham in any way for his actions," Heys said.
"If you are 62 years of age and minding your own business when somebody hurls abuse at you, I think you are entitled to remonstrate with them," Heys added.
"It is horrendous that this can happen in Trafalgar Square on a Friday night. It would appear to be completely random."
While rare, vicious anti-gay attacks by young perpetrators in the city have happened before, occasionally accompanied by callous secondary conduct, such as an incident in 2004 in which four teens kicked and beat a gay man to death while recording the killing using a cell phone camera, noted an Oct. 15 article in the Daily Mail.
That same article also recalled a 2006 killing in which two young men murdered a gay bartender.
The Daily Mail recounted that after Baynham confronted teh group about their behavior, he got into a scuffle with one of the girls and was punched by the young man. Baynham went down with the punch, and the teens began to kick him, reportedly shouting anti-gay abuse.
Baynham's friend attempted to intervene, but was restrained by an onlooker who did not understand the situation and thought that the girl was under attack.
The group then moved off, telling the friend not to follow them of they would "knock out" the friend.
Security video caught the group as they walked along the sidewalk.
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.
