Gary Jenkins: Two men and teenage girl guilty of murdering doctor in homophobic attack
Jason Edwards, 25, Lee Strickland, 36, and Dionne Timms-Williams, 17, will be sentenced at later date
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Two men and a teenage girl have been found guilty of killing a psychiatrist in a homophobic attack in Cardiff last year.
The trio violently assaulted Dr Gary Jenkins in Bute Park in the centre of the Welsh capital in the early hours of 20 July 2021.
The 54-year-old father-of-two died 16 days later at the University Hospital of Wales, having suffered multiple brain injuries.
Jason Edwards, 25, Lee Strickland, 36, and Dionne Timms-Williams, 17, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and robbery, but were judged to have murdered Dr Jenkins.
LGBT+ charity Stonewall said the homophobic murder was a reminder of the hatred faced by the gay community for “simply existing”.
The prosecution, led by Dafydd Enoch QC, said the assault, which lasted 15 minutes, had been “motivated by greed, homophobia and straight-up violence”, adding that the defendants had been looking for “vulnerable gay men” to rob.
A key part of the prosecution’s case was an audio clip taken from a nearby CCTV camera, which showed how Dr Jenkins was “cruelly beaten, robbed, tortured and left for dead”.
Just before 1am, a man identified as Dr Jenkins shouted “Leave me alone” and “Get off me” repeatedly, as demands for his wallet were made by Timms-Williams and homophobic slurs were delivered by one of the male defendants.
After the victim pleaded for his life, his groans of pain grew quieter and then stopped.
While Timms-Williams gave instructions like “Do it all over again” and “Hit him again”, a male voice urged the others to “stamp on his head”.
“Yeah, I needed that,” Timms-Williams said in the aftermath of the attack.
Louis Williams, who tried to prevent the attackers from hurting Dr Jenkins, testified in court.
The witness, who described Timms-Williams as “evil” and “sadistic”, told the jury the defendants laughed as they attacked Dr Jenkins.
“I couldn’t understand why they were hurting him so much,” he said.
Strickland was later captured on CCTV buying a bottle of whiskey with Dr Jenkins’ stolen card, while Timms-Williams, who did not know either of her co-defendants before the evening of the attack, was shown hugging and kissing Edwards.
The victim’s blood was discovered in one of Edwards’ shoes and Strickland’s blood was found on Dr Jenkins’ jeans.
As Timms-Williams’ clothes from that night were not discovered, the prosecution said she had deliberately got rid of them.
The three defendants will be sentenced at a later date, the judge said.
The verdict came after an eight-day trial at Merthyr Crown Court in south Wales.
In a statement following the verdict Iestyn Wyn, campaigns, policy and research manager at Stonewall Cymru said: “Lesbian, gay, bi, trans and queer people should be free to go about their lives without fear or restriction, but the tragic death of Dr Jenkins is reminder of the hate our communities face for simply existing.
“Remarks made during the trial have further eroded the trust that our communities have in our justice system – where four in five (81%) of LGBTQ+ people already do not report hate incidents to the police.
“As people across the UK mourn the heart breaking loss of Dr Jenkins, the government must take urgent action to challenge anti-LGBTQ+ attitudes and ensure all our communities are safe and free.”
Additional reporting by agencies