A Bedworth man who launched a savage attack after taking 'an almost instant dislike' to a young man he wrongly thought was gay has been jailed for four-and-a-half years.
Shane Baynham was told by a judge at Warwick Crown Court that the 'motivation for and the savagery of' his attack on his victim were 'truly disturbing.'
Baynham, aged 23, of Joseph Luckman Road, Bedworth, had been found guilty following a trial of inflicting grievous bodily harm on the victim, whose eye socket and nose were fractured.
Prosecutor Stuart Clarkson said that in June 2013 the victim went out for the evening with his fiancee to a social club in King Street, Bedworth.
He added: "Mr Baynham was there and seemed to have taken an almost instant dislike to him, perhaps because he had distinctive fair hair."
Baynham, who was standing behind him, pulled his shoulder length hair, to which the victim calmly responded by turning round and saying: "Hello, I'm Michael, I don't think we've met."
The prosecutor said: "The defendant stared angrily at him; and that was that at the time, but it was the genesis of what went on later."
When the couple went outside for a cigarette Baynham followed them out and, intent on causing trouble, began calling him 'a queer' and 'Flash Gordon,' and made a reference to him looking like Jimmy Savile, but the victim ignored the taunts.
Both the victim and his fiancee left the club at shortly after midnight, and as they were walking to their home near Bedworth town centre they saw Baynham ahead of them.
"They changed direction so they would not have to pass him; but that didn't work because Baynham changed direction too and crossed over," said the prosecutor.
As Baynham approached him in Leicester Street, the victim tried to push him away with his foot, but Baynham threw a number of punches before his girlfriend pushed him away.
The pair tried to get away, but a CCTV camera captured Baynham chasing after them and striking the victim to the back of his head, knocking him to the ground.
He could remember nothing else until coming round in hospital, but his fiancee described Baynham kicking him eight or ten times as he lay on the ground.
"Eye witnesses say that at the end of this they thought that the victim was dead, such was the amount of blood as he lay prone on the ground," said Mr Clarkson.
The victim suffered a displaced fracture to his cheekbone, which had to be repaired with a titanium plate, there were several fractures to his nose, and he had chest and rib injuries as well.
Judge Alan Parker observed: "His face was grotesquely swollen following the attack, and he was just smothered in blood."
Baynham, who was arrested nearby, denied calling him a 'queer', and claimed he had acted in self-defence except for a final kick which he accepted in court had been unnecessary.
The trial took place as long ago as October last year, but there followed adjournments for a pre-sentence report to be prepared on him and for the details of a previous incident, when he was jailed in 2010 for an affray, to be obtained.
At the resumed hearing Baynham appeared via a video link from HMP Hewell after he was 'missed from the list' of prisoners who needed to be transported to the court.
Andrew Tucker, defending, said: "He's been in custody for six months and has done his best to use that time constructively. He was someone who would go out and have huge amounts to drink now and again, and he's voluntarily placed himself on alcohol awareness courses."
He argued that Baynham's earlier comments to the victim 'do not drive one to the conclusion that there must have been a homophobic element' because the assault took place some time later when they came across each-other by chance.
And he added: "He had himself been struck by the victim, so one can say there was a degree of provocation."
Jailing Baynham, Judge Parker told him: "It was not a case of self-defence. Self-defence never came into it except during the trial when it was introduced by what you said was done to you by the victim and that there was a degree of provocation. I reject that.
"It was in my judgement motivated by hostility based on his presumed sexual orientation. Your use of the words and the circumstances in which they were used and your subsequent conduct demonstrated your feelings towards him.
"The victim is not homosexual, but by calling him a queer you were demonstrating unequivocal hostility based on the victim's wrongly-presumed sexual orientation.
"In your own deviant and grotesque thought processes you did consider him to be a homosexual which justified your violence towards him. This was a sustained and determined attack.
"The motivation for and the savagery of the attack on the victim are truly disturbing.
Posted: Tue May 05, 2015 5:44 pm