Subscribe to Breaking News
Loading ...Not guilty verdict in gay slaying
02.20.2009 5:01pm EST
(Liverpool, England) The family of an 18-year-old gay Liverpool man, who was brutally beaten and dumped on a street to die, rain from a courtroom in tears Friday after a jury found the man accused of the crime not guilty.
Gavin Alker, 19, was on trial for the killing last July of 18-year-old Michael Causer.The jury deliberated almost 13 hours before reaching a verdict. Alker stood emotionless in the docket as the verdict was read.
During the trial, the court was told that Alker and Causer were part of a group that had met during a night out at a local pub. After heavy drinking the group went to the home of the grandmother of one of the men to “sleep it off.”
At some point, Alker allegedly discovered from either Causer or one of the other men that Causer was gay.
Prosecutor Richard Pratt told the jury that Alker took a heavy hardbound American history book from a shelf, went into the room where Causer was sleeping and used it to batter Causer’s head. He then beat and kicked him repeatedly.
Pratt told the jury there was only one reason for the attack: “Michael Causer was gay.”
Pratt told the trial that the evidence showed that Alker tried to burn a section of Causer’s leg and prepared to rip his body piercings out with a knife.
At that point, Pratt told the court, as Causer lay unconscious Alker and two other men – Michael Binsteed, 18, James O’Connor, 19 – decided to dump the body on a street.
They allegedly hoisted the body over a fence and dragged it to the road. Pratt said that Alker then fled and the other two returned to the house and cleaned away evidence. Binsteed called an ambulance.
Paramedics found Causer on the roadway barely breathing and suffering massive brain injuries and was rushed to hospital. He died eight days later when doctors declared him brain dead and a ventilator was removed.
Alker pleaded not guilty to murder and blamed O’Connor alone for the killing. O’Connor, 19, has already admitted murder.
The murder galvanized Britain’s LGBT community and has drawn comparisons to the murder of Matthew Shepard in Wyoming in October 1998.
Shepard was a gay University of Wyoming student who was beaten and left to die lashed to a fence on windswept country road. Two men are currently serving life sentences for Shepard’s murder.
WOW! WOW! WOW! Anti-gay bigotry from haterosexuals once again serves to discriminate in the justice system.
A study a couple years ago showed that high-prejudiced heterosexuals are more likely to believe a heterosexual that holds an unfavorable opinion than a gay person that holds a favorable one. Clearly that is what happened here as the jury completely believe the haterosexual killer.
So is this kid going to spending any time in Jail? Dumping the body? Not reporting the crime? “Self-defense” of a hairdresser against 3 guys????? wtf?
“So is this kid going to spending any time in Jail? Dumping the body? Not reporting the crime? “Self-defense” of a hairdresser against 3 guys????? wtf?”
I know, right?
Guess the court decided to conveniently overlook those points.
Pathetic!
Oh no, that jury was so biased against gays that the murder of this gay guy meant nothing to them.
What a horrible day for his family, that their son was so disposable and meant nothing, that the jury should abandon its responsibility to render justice.
Are they to let this filthy murdering slime go feel to do this to yet another gay man?
At least the 2 scums who killed Mathew Shepard must rot behind bars for life. A bargain for them. Too bad they will never get a taste of what they did to Matthew.
Sons of Bitches!!
It would be great if you could proofread your work before you send it out!
All this BULLS**T from supposedly Gay “friendly” Britian??????? After Britian bans the loony Phelps Cult from entering they then turn around and allow this f**king punk to WALK free??????
we need a real revolution, our lives are not worth anything to many people becasue we are glbt, as a lesbian batter on a city street in liberal seattle for not accepting a come on from a straigh white male and not many stopped to help , right int he heart of our community even there we are not safe we need to do something, qand stop hidin in our closets of class. i feel very sad for this brother, the brits ar not as liberal as many think, its sad, wake up everyone.
my sisters and brothers we have to do something this is exactly like the civil rights movement which my relatives had to live through and be part of the revolution, we need to be heard get in the streets, boycott, whatever it takes we need out rights to exist in this unfair bigotted place, we deserve our rights to live!!! peace, trudi
OMG This is so sad ! I could not believe this the guy has no jail time at all or what ??? Thats just not right !!!!
This is shameful.
I read about this in a JAMAICAN gay website that described Britain’s “gay Community” as being “galvanized” by this tragedy…
…I saw little evidence of us being galvanized. I remember the original reporting, but outside Liverpool there doesn’t seem to have been that much coverage. People have made reference to Matthew Shepherd’s murder, can we claim to have articulated the same level of outrage as followed that crime?
Perhaps a message was sent to the jury that we didn’t really care about Michael Causer. What did we DO? What will we do the next time someone is killed because of their sexuality let alone when they get off at trial? – Because we know it will keep on happening.
JOSEPH!!! Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit! Why must you criticize anyone’s grammar, or spelling or anything else that is not pertinent to the issue! Let people type like they may and leave the grammar in the class room! Not everyone is so educated as you would like them to be; and you actually abuse and intimidate them so that perhaps they won’t want to express themselves! Again, BULLSHIT!
My name is Sam, I’m from Boston, the city that recognizes equality for all, sometimes.
I was the victim of a horrific violent hate crime, i was hit in the back of my head with a piece of metal that weighed more than a few pounds. I was hit so violent and so repeatedly, that the metal bar snapped in two. I managed escape and get someone to help and they called the police, who found him and arrested him.
I received over 110 stitches to the back of my head, it took the surgeons over ten hours to stitch the wounds. I had a blown out eye socket, fractured cheek bone and lost over two pints of blood.
I was hospitalized for three days, and told if I hadn’t been found or helped I would have bled to death. While hospitalized, two detectives came to question me about sexually assaulting him!
The district attorneys office, nullified the charges against me and a grand jury indited him for attempted murder.
The pretrail lasted about two and a half years.
On the first day at trial, my assailant wanted to make a plea bargain and admitted to the crime, the judge told him that his plea was not made correctly and he made a second plea to the judge with the assistance of his attorney, which the judge refused again. He then stated that the defendant had the right to a 12 member jury, and if one of them found him not guilty, the case would be dismissed.
THE JURY FOUND HIM NOT GUILTY
Just before Christmas, I received a letter from his attorney stating, that if I didn’t pay, 100.000.00 dollars, they were going to take me to civil court for sexual assault.
This situation lasted another two years.
I prevailed before the case came to trail, one reason being, he shot a cop in the back with a high powered pellet rifle, not to mention the many other aggravated assaults on his lengthy criminal record.
There are two important tools I believe we must use, civil disobedience, and as Gandhi instructed his followers, not to pay tax, we are paying taxes for a military that denies us freedom of speech, don’t ask don’t tell, we pay taxes for pensions to senators and congressmen that oppress us, to the bigots who vote against us for their children s education, not to mention the most important equal marriage. I believe we should have a tax exemptions on any and all privileges we don’t have equal rights or access to enjoy.
Thousands of us should march, occupy the head Mormon Church in Utah.
Collectively we have spent over 650 gay billion dollars last year, that’s more power that any religious organization.
Don’t know what more to say than I tired of us taking their perception of our shame, their morals, their hatred, their murder and violence, to force us to bend to their will.
Sam, why didn’t you turn around and sue the bastard that attacked you? Even though O.J. was found not guilty, he lost the civil case against him.