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Loading ...Pair plead not guilty in gay teen’s murder
11.20.2008 2:27pm EST
(Liverpool, England) Two men pleaded not guilty Thursday to the brutal murder of a teenager whose slaying has been likened to that of Matthew Shepard in the US.
Eighteen-year-old Michael Causer was attacked on July 25th, beaten in what police described as vicious and unprovoked homophobic bashing. He was found unconscious on a road, lying in a pool of blood.The openly gay teen suffered massive brain injuries and was rushed to the hospital. He died eight days later, when doctors declared him brain dead and a ventilator was removed.
Gavin Alker, 19, and James O’Connor, 19, were arrested several days after the beating and charged with causing grievous bodily harm. The charges were changed to murder following Causer’s death.
At Liverpool Crown Court Friday, Alker and O’Connor heard the charges read and entered not guilty pleas. Alker entered his plea via video link from prison.
He was ordered held in custody. O’Connor was given conditional bail. The three will return to court Jan. 26 for the start of their trial.
A third man, Michael Binstead, 18, has been charged with perverting the course of justice He, too, has been released on bail and has been ordered to return to court on Dec. 5.
Causer’s family and friends packed the courtroom Friday to see the accused. Several broke down as the charges were read.
The killing 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. He met two men in a Laramie bar and left with him. He was beaten and left to die lashed to a fence on windswept country road. Found unconscious, he was rushed to the hospital, but died a week later.
Two men are currently serving life sentences for Shepard’s murder.
Dear Negros:
Still want to stand on your favorite bit about how gay equality isn’t anything like negro equality?
Because negros have been systematically singled out for slavery and violence while gays have been singled out only for violence?
Gay men are beaten, hung, dragged, attacked, fired, run out of the military, restrained in employment promotion, run out of neighborhoods, bullied, tortured, AND LEGISLATED AGAINST, STILL!!
Not a hundred years ago. Not forty years ago.
NOW.
Right now.
And, surprisingly enough, by negros.
Who think that their 400 years of exploitation which ended forty years ago is somehow so much worse or meaningful than the 5,000 years gays have suffered under the crippling and deadly yoke of the very religion negros embrace so maniacally…Which, btw, was imprinted on you by the white slave owners who used the religion to control you.
And if you think about THAT little circumstantial circle for too long, I guarantee your head will hurt.
Is this msg racist? Yep. Is it all still true? Yep.
“Racist” doesn’t automatically mean “wrong”.
Sarrellec,
If you must be a racist, please learn to spell. Thanks much.
Best to you and yours.
James
Sarrellec: I’m not an especially “p.c.” person, but “Negro” is rather an antiquated and insensitive word. Additionally, while the black vote in CA was largely in support of Prop 8 – they should not be singled out in that regard because everyone who voted for it is guilty of ignorance and bigotry. Personally, I also disagree with black people who feel that their historical suffering is somehow greater or more valid than the historical suffering of GLBT people. The fact is that GLBT people are represented in ALL walks of life and by every kind of person. GLBT people have suffered not for a few hundred years in some countries – they have suffered for thousands of years in most every country. Moreover, no one group of people has a “patent” on suffering – not blacks, Jews, GLBT people or any other group. Suffering is suffering and it doesn’t matter who it is or why it is happening – that individuals pain is always valid. Yes, it is disheartening when a group of people who has experienced first hand the evils of discrimination, discriminate themselves but I suggest that you look toward organized religion to vent your anger in that regard. They are the greatest promoters of hatred and intolerance in this world with their never-ending game of “my God’s better than your God”.
James – yet another completely unnecessary response.
What adds to the viciousness and ugliness of this crime of HATE is that The Lambeth Conference was being held at Canterbury Cathedral AT THE TIME OF THE ATTACK AND THE LATER DEATH…Rowan Williams, the cowardly Archbishop of Canterbury, preached on and on about LGBT Anglicans being ¨prudently¨ excluded from ALL levels of Churchlife (see Lambeth 1.10 Document) and didn´t even mention the crime of HATE commited against Michael Causer at Liverpool. Rowan Williams wouldn´t know ¨compassion¨ if he were hung from it!
R.I.P. Michael Causer
Those [screw]-ups had better get life in prison.
I’d like to say I don’t understand such viciousness, but at my age (56), such incidents don’t surprise me. Hatred of gays is a recurring theme. I am especially disappointed it happened in England, though, because that nation lacks the religiously fueled fanaticism so favored in America. This makes me realize that though laws can benefit members of the lgbt community, changes in mentality will have to take a different, more aggressive route.
Sarrellec, by referring to African-Americans as “negros” all that you are accomplishing is depicting yourself as just as much of an ignorant bigot as the homophobes who commit such atrocities as the one mentioned in this story. Not all black people are homophobic and there are indeed gay African-Americans just as every ethnicity has gay members, so how do you expect straight people to accept us homosexuals when the gay commmunity has people like you who are just as prejudiced and ignorant as gay bashers?
The roll call of our martyrs just gets longer and longer.
Terrible! If they did it, all three should get life. There’s no reason for this senseless act.
It’s unbelievable the hatred that some people feel toward us.
Although it is true that of all minorities gays probably have, in a sense, been persecuted more (the argument can be made) BUT, that does not mean that we should lord ourselves or our suffering over any other group. Suffering and persecution of any group for any reason, most of all religious, is both henious and frankly, dishonest. The truth is that yes, some blacks are homophobic and it can be confusing as to why they would not be more understanding, but calling people ‘negro’ or worse does a disservice to what we should really be striving for. Understanding, communication and most importantly, respect. At the end of the day the old adage holds true, you can get more flies with honey than you can with vinegar.
I’ve always been intrigued be the phrase “God created Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve”. If this is true, Adam and Eve had to have committed incest in order to populate the earth. That being said, if someone believes the bible to be the true way, then they support incest.
I use this whenever confronted by the bible pounders and it pretty much stops them in their tracks.
Maybe if commercials for gay marriage turned their beliefs back on them, they would stop and think about what they are saying.
Just my thoughts.
i just wanted to say that california prop 8 did not devide black against white. as we all know there are black homosexuals the devide was age if no one over 65 voted prop 8 would have failed the youth vote was 70% no on 8 age 18 – 29 regardles of race lets not attack each other the way our opponents want us to lets come together in this hateful world we should love and support each other. and lets all stop using degradeing languge shame on you sarrellec and please spare me grammer corections this isnt english class