Teen Girl Guilty in Gay Man's Stomping Death

Young Brit boasted of 'putting the boot' to 62-year-old civil servant
By Mary Papenfuss,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 17, 2010 4:23 AM CST

A teenage girl and two pals have been convicted of the savage stomping death of a 62-year-old gay man in the middle of London's popular Trafalgar Square. Ruby Thomas, 18, boasted she "put the boot to" Ian Baynham in the "Clockwork Orange" attack late last year. Baynham confronted Thomas when she hurled anti-gay epithets at him, and her male friend responded by knocking him to the pavement, where blood began pouring from his head, according to a witness. The three friends—including a "smiling" Thomas—then set upon him as he lay on the pavement, reports the Telegraph.

"Shocked onlookers saw repeated stamping to his chest and forceful kicks to his head," said the prosecutor. Baynham died 18 days later of a brain injury in a nearby hospital. His blood was found smeared on Thomas' handbag and her pumps. "My brother was an ordinary, honest, decent man, loved by his family and his many friends," said Baynham's sister after the conviction. "His only crime seems to have been to stand up for who he was. It is impossible to make sense of the dreadful event that led to his death." The trio will be sentenced next month.
(More gay bashing stories.)

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