Ruby Thomas given seven years for homophobic attack on Ian Baynham

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/jan/26/ruby-thomas-sentenced-fatal-homophobic-attack

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A former public school pupil who took part in the "mindless, drink-fuelled" and fatal homophobic beating of a civil servant, stamping on him and kicking him as he lay unconscious in Trafalgar Square, today began a seven-year sentence in a young offenders' institution after being sentenced for manslaughter.

Ruby Thomas, 19, was one of three teenagers who attacked 62-year-old Ian Baynham in an incident likened by one witness at the Old Bailey last month to something out of Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange.

Jurors then convicted Thomas, of Anerley, south London, and her ex-boyfriend Joel Alexander, now 20, of nearby Thornton Heath – who was today sentenced to six years – after hearing details of the assault in September 2009.

Thomas had been acting in a "lairy, mouthy way" and flirting with passersby before she turned on Baynham and his friend Philip Brown and screamed "fucking faggots" at them as they crossed the square.

She also smiled as she "put the boot into" an unconscious Baynham after Alexander had knocked him to the ground and caused a severe brain injury.

Baynham died 18 days later at the Royal London hospital without recovering consciousness. Police found his blood on Thomas's handbag and the ballet pumps she had been wearing.

Judge Richard Hawkins increased Thomas's sentence from six years to seven because of the homophobic nature of her actions. He said: "This was a case of mindless, drink-fuelled violence committed in public."

A third defendant, Rachael Burke, 18, of Upper Norwood, south London, will serve a two-year sentence in a young offenders' institution after being convicted of affray at a separate trial.

Thomas is a former pupil of Sydenham high school, where fees are currently £12,000 a year. The judge blamed her for sparking the violence leading to Baynham's death, although her kicks did not kill him.

He said: "You, Ruby Thomas, started the matter. You have a previous conviction for drunken loutish behaviour and you have demonstrated hostility towards Ian Baynham based upon his sexual orientation or presumed sexual orientation."

It was not suggested that Alexander's actions had anything to do with the victim being gay.

Earlier, Christopher Sallon QC, Thomas's barrister, had claimed there was little "reliable evidence" to suggest she was hostile towards Baynham "based on his sexual orientation", saying statements from her mother and a gay friend provided a strong case that "homophobia played no part in her life at all".

He asked: "Could it be that the words she actually spoke, 'fucking faggots', simply meant: 'You have got to be if you don't want to sleep with me?' "

Her crime was not a "gay-bashing attack" but involved a "passing remark made by a drunken girl".

Thomas's father had been violent towards her mother and had been convicted of manslaughter while her mother, a legal secretary, had "scrimped and saved" to send her to private school, Sallon said.

After Thomas confided in a classmate about her father, she had been subjected to "malicious gossip and terrible bullying".

She had turned to drink while still a young girl to cope with her problems but had now engaged in the 12-step recovery programme.

Kerim Fuad QC, for Alexander, said his offence had been "wholly out of character" compared with his "usual responsible behaviour".

Baynham was in the first week of a new job as a team leader in border control working for Serco, which was contracted to the Home Office.

Detective Inspector Paul Barran, who led the police investigation, said it "clearly showed a background of aggressive, drunken behaviour that led to hostile confrontations with others – decency and respect were nonexistent".

Ben Summerskill, chief executive of Stonewall, welcomed the extension to the sentence for Thomas "recognising that this terrible killing was homophobic".

He added: "The reason that Stonewall secured provision for aggravated sentences in the 2003 Criminal Justice Act was precisely so that a powerful deterrent message can be sent that violence based on homophobic hate is as abhorrent as that based on racist hate."