Homophobic killer to spend 2.5 years in jail

A teenage girl was so outraged by two gay men holding hands that she stamped one of them to death in central London.

Now her prison time - less than three years - has outraged members of the gay community who say such attacks will continue because of lenient sentences.

Ruby Thomas, who was 17 at the time of the 2009 attack, killed Ian Baynham, 62, in Trafalgar Square because he was holding hands with another man.

Mr Baynham's skull was fractured and he died 18 days later in hospital.

Police found his blood smeared on Thomas' handbag and the ballet pumps she was wearing as she kicked him.

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

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

Jurors did not agree and convicted her of manslaughter, along with Alexander, 20, at the end of their trial last month.

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

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

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

Photos from Ruby Thomas' Facebook page.

But given the time Thomas had spent in custody awaiting trial, she would be released in two-and-a-half years, the Daily Mail reported.

"The teenager, who had been drinking for hours with two friends near their South London homes, launched her attack when the 62-year-old reprimanded her for her insults in front of tourists in London in September 2009," The Mail said.

"Her friend Joel Alexander, then 18, punched Mr Baynham to the ground, and Thomas grinned as she stamped on the victim's face 'with all her might', kicking him repeatedly with 'great gusto', before leaving him to die.

"After the attack, the killers were seen entering a lift. Thomas giggled and danced as her friend Rachael Burke, then 17, applied make-up.

"The next day, Thomas, who had attended £12,000-a-year ($19,000) Sydenham High School for Girls, joked about the killing on Facebook."

The judge said a precious life had been lost and no sentence he passed could change that fact.

He said Thomas had a record of "drunken, loutish behaviour" having spat at and threatened to stab a bus driver at age 15, The Mail said.

"We have lost a dear brother and I think this acknowledges it in some way," Mr Baynham's sister, Jenny, 59, said.

"It's not a really long time, but sentences are getting less and less these days and I am not out for vengeance."

Thomas, now 19, gave Miss Baynham a letter in court this week, but she refused to read it.

"To do it at this time, at this last minute, when he died more than a year ago, was just too little, too late," Miss Baynham said.

Gay Times editor Tristan Reid-Smith said the sentences would not be a deterrent.

"The idea that you can kill someone because you don't like them is so dangerous, and that's why it is key, that the punishment should fit the crime," Mr Reid-Smith said.

Thomas' father, Richard, was convicted of manslaughter in 2003 for stabbing a taxi driver to death in South London, The Mail said.

"In a letter read to the court, Thomas' mother, Louise Lovely, 45, said her daughter's childhood was characterised by 'abuse and hardship' at the hands of her violent, alcoholic father," The Mail said.

"Christopher Sallon, defending, said Thomas had turned to drink after having to visit her father in jail."