01.53 am, Friday February 24 2012

Teen who kicked gay man to death is jailed

09:25 AEDT Thu Jan 27 2011
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Ruby Thomas has been jailed for seven years.
Ruby Thomas has been jailed for seven years.

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A former public schoolgirl who kicked and stamped on a gay civil servant during a deadly homophobic attack was jailed for seven years for his manslaughter.

Ruby Thomas, 19, hurled obscene abuse at 62-year-old Ian Baynham during the drink-fuelled assault in London's Trafalgar Square in September 2009.

Mr Baynham died 18 days later in hospital. Police found his blood smeared on Thomas's handbag and the ballet pumps she was wearing as she kicked him.

The Old Bailey heard how she screamed "f---ing faggots" and smiled as she "put the boot into" Mr Baynham after he was knocked to the ground by another teenager, Joel Alexander.

Thomas's ex-boyfriend Declan Seavers told the court that the teenager, of Anerley, southeast London, was "not the type of girl" to have done it.

But jurors did not agree and convicted her of manslaughter, along with Alexander, 20, of Thornton Heath, south east London, at the end of their trial last month.

Alexander was jailed for six years while 18-year-old Rachael Burke, of Upper Norwood, south east London, was given a two-year sentence after being found guilty at an earlier trial of affray.

Judge Richard Hawkins increased Thomas's sentence from six years to seven years because of the homophobic nature of the attack.

He said: "This was a case of mindless drink-fuelled violence committed in public."

 
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