(Liverpool, England) The gruesome details of the murder of an 18-year-old gay Liverpool man were laid out before a jury as the trial of his accused killer began in a case that shocked Britain for its callous disregard for life.

As the prosecutor laid out the evidence Alker stood quietly in the prisoner’s box.

The court was told that the two men 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 one of the men’s grandmother to “sleep it off”.

At some point Alker allegedly discovered from either Causer or one of the other men that Causer was gay.

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 the court was told.

Prosecutor Richard Pratt told the jury there was only one reason for the attack: “Michael Causer was gay.”

“As he was subjected to the attack which would ultimately kill him, Gavin Alker was heard to abuse him using anti-gay language, indicating clearly that Michael Causer was being attacked, and was killed, because he was gay.”

Even after Causer fell into a coma the attack did not end.

“‘He’s a little queer,” said Alker, to one of the other men in the house who had gone to see what the noise was.  “He deserves it,” Alker added.

Pratt told the court that the evidence will show that Alker then tried to burn a section of Causer’s leg and prepared to rip his body piercings out with a knife.

At that point though, 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 hoisted the body over a fence and dragged it to the road. 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 has pleaded not guilty to murder and has blamed Binsteed and O’Connor for the killing.

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 hospital but died a week later. Two men are currently serving life sentences for Shepard’s murder.