A consultant psychiatrist was tortured, robbed and left for dead in a city centre park by two men and a teenage girl who were motivated by “greed, homophobia and a straightforward liking of violence”, a jury has heard.
Dr Gary Jenkins, 54, had gone to Bute Park in Cardiff seeking “sexual contact” with other men, Merthyr Tydfil crown court was told, when he was subject to the vicious 15-minute attack.
Jason Edwards, Lee William Strickland and a girl, who was 16 at the time, egged one another on and laughed as they beat Jenkins before stealing his bag and leaving him with his trousers pulled down. During the attack the girl could be heard shouting “Fucking pig. Fucking dick” while Edwards yelled: “Stamp his head. Stamp his head.” Afterwards the girl said “I needed that,” the court heard.
Jenkins, a father-of-two, suffered a brain injury and fractures to his face and ribs and died 16 days later.
Edwards, 25, Strickland, 36, and the girl, who is now 17 and cannot be named for legal reasons, have pleaded guilty to manslaughter, robbery and assault occasioning actual bodily harm. The three deny murder.
Dafydd Enoch QC, prosecuting, said the attack was “evil and sadistic” with the defendants “indulging in sport”.
He said: “We like to think as human beings we do protect each other. Sadly the man at the centre of this case encountered the worst traits of humankind.
“Dr Jenkins was in the habit of attending Bute Park at night looking for sexual contact with like-minded men. He would often drink heavily as well.
“On 20 July last year in the early hours of the morning he was viciously beaten, robbed, tortured and left for dead by these three defendants. It was a beating apparently motivated by greed, homophobia and a straightforward liking of violence.”
The court heard Jenkins had met his wife at medical school in London and they had two daughters. He moved to Cardiff after the breakdown of his marriage and went on to explore his bisexuality. He was open about his sexuality but Enoch said: “He was a very easy target as he wandered about Bute Park.”
Jenkins left work at 5pm on the night of the attack before going for a meal and a glass of wine. He was later spotted on CCTV buying cigarettes and alcohol before last being seen at 9pm near the park.
The court heard the attackers positioned themselves in the park “to target somebody for robbery and violence”.
Enoch said: “They were hurting Jenkins for the best part of 15 minutes as he lay on the ground. It was torture pure and simple. Dr Jenkins is heard to be pleading with those people to stop hurting him and he pleads over and over again until he can speak no more.”
A passerby, Louis Williams, spotted Jenkins on the ground being kicked. Enoch said: “He went towards them shouting, ‘Stop. Leave him alone.’” The girl was then heard yelling: “Take his bag. Get his bag.”
Williams described the three “egging each other on” while laughing during the attack. The court heard Williams said the teenage girl was “confident” and said she thought “everything she was doing was just funny”.
Police found Jenkins unconscious with his trousers pulled down. “He had been left in a humiliating state,” said Enoch.
The prosecutor told the court the three defendants had been “in search of vulnerable gay men who were in the park for sex” to rob and made homophobic remarks to Jenkins as they beat him.
Another man who will give evidence during the trial described being lured by the three around the back of a cafe with the suggestion of a sexual encounter with Strickland. However, sensing something was wrong, he left.
Enoch said: “The unlikely combination of these three defendants produced a lethal powder keg which sadly for Dr Jenkins detonated right in front of him. He didn’t deserve what happened to him – he was a much-loved and admired individual.”
His line manager, consultant psychiatrist Paul Cantrell, told the court: “There was something extraordinarily unthreatening about Gary which made him well-liked by all those who came across him. He had a wide circle of friends within the field in which we worked.
“I was aware from colleagues he frequented Bute Park after hours. The impression conveyed to me by colleagues was well-known that he had occasion to attend the park late at night and knew him well enough to know it was to find a male partner. We were worried about these practices and were thinking of warning him.”
The trial continues.
