A 17-year-old girl and two men have been found guilty of the sadistic homophobic murder of a consultant psychiatrist in a city centre park.
The three “tortured” Dr Gary Jenkins by kicking and punching him and stamping on his head for up to 30 minutes as he begged them to stop.
During the attack and robbery in Bute Park, Cardiff, Jenkins was subject to homophobic abuse and the three left him with his trousers pulled down.
Afterwards, Dionne Timms-Williams, who was 16 at the time and had not met her fellow attackers before that night, said: “I needed that.”
The prosecution said that Jason Edwards, Lee William Strickland and Timms-Williams were motivated by a combination of homophobia, greed and a liking for violence.
After the verdict, a statement from Jenkins’ family said: “Gary was such a kind soul who would never hurt anyone. He was an incredibly generous and creative man who had only good intentions.
“Gary’s private life being put on display through a crown court trial has only intensified the impact of this event on our family, friends and colleagues. It has been horrible to have to listen to the details of what happened.
“Gary’s untimely death has also had an impact on his patients. Gary was one of the most humane, kind, compassionate doctors one could ever come across.”
The charity Stonewall expressed deep concern.
Iestyn Wyn, the 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.”
Stonewall also raised concerns at the way the prosecution presented the case, telling the jury that the victim’s “sexual predilections would be his undoing” and that he was well liked despite his “lifestyle choices or peccadilloes”.
Wyn said: “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 heartbreaking loss of Dr Jenkins, the government must take urgent action to challenges anti-LGBTQ+ attitudes and ensure all our communities are safe and free.”
Edwards, 25, Strickland, 36, and Timms-Williams pleaded guilty to manslaughter and robbery but denied murder. They also admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm to a man who tried to save the psychiatrist.
The jury at Merthyr Tydfil crown court was told that Jenkins, a 54-year-old father of two teenage girls, had separated from his wife six years before his murder and moved back to his home city of Cardiff.
He was in the park in the early hours of 20 July last year when the three, who had been drinking, pounced on him. Audio of part of the attack was picked up by a CCTV camera in a shuttered cafe.
He could be heard crying out: “Please help me” and repeatedly called out: “Stop it” and “Why?”. One of the men could be heard subjecting him to homophobic abuse and one urged: “Stamp on his head.”
A man who tried to help described the tone as “bullying … like they were having fun, like they were right to do it, like they think it’s funny and it’s just enjoyment for them. It seemed like they were loving what they were doing.” He said Timms-Williams had seemed “evil, sadistic and weird”.
Dafydd Enoch QC said the assault could be seen as “torture” because of its prolonged nature, and claimed the killers saw it as “sport”.
After the attack, Edwards and Timms-Williams embraced. Strickland bought a bottle of whisky using a card stolen from Jenkins. The girl appeared cheerful, contacted her mother to say she did not need picking up and stayed the night with a friend.
When he was arrested, Strickland told police he was a beggar and had taken the drug spice that night. Edwards told the police the park was “dirty”.
Timms-Williams, who lived with her mother, a company director, in a village in the Vale of Glamorgan, claimed she joined in the attack because she was scared that the other two would hurt her if she didn’t.
Jenkins suffered a brain injury and fractures to his face and ribs, and died 16 days later.
Wales’ education minister, Jeremy Miles, expressed concern over the language used by the prosecution, tweeting: “He was not ‘undone’ by his ‘sexual proclivities’. He was brutally attacked and died. We have a long way to go.”
A Crown Prosecution Service spokesperson said: “The only people responsible for this horrific crime were those convicted today by the jury. The suggestion that Dr Jenkins was in any way to blame is completely wrong. We apologise for inappropriate and insensitive remarks made during the opening statement.”
