Ian Baynham - trial opens into civil servant’s death

Published: 7 May, 2010
by DAVID ST GEORGE

A MAN whose punch led to the death of a Whitehall civil servant following a violent confrontation in Trafalgar Square has told a jury: “I did not realise he had been seriously hurt.”
Joel Alexander, 19, said he hit out believing he was protecting a girl he was with.
An Old Bailey court heard how Ian Baynham, 62, was out celebrating with a pal after landing a new job when they were goaded about their sexuality and attacked.

Two beer-sodden teenage girls branded them “f***** faggots” and when Mr Baynham responded to the insults he was felled and then kicked repeatedly.
He died in hospital 18 days later from skull fractures.
Eyewitnesses were “shocked by the viciousness unleashed on September 25 last year and one onlooker likened the level of violence to a scene  from the cult film A Clockwork Orange”, said Brian Altman, QC, prosecuting.
Mr Baynham and his friend Philip Brown,  30, who was also injured, were walking  to a gay pub when they came under verbal  abuse from Ruby Thomas.

As he lay helpless  and unconscious, Ms Thomas and Rachel Burke stamped on his chest and kicked his head, the jury was told.
Alexander told the court that he panicked and swapped his top after the incident.
“I didn’t tell my parents because I was scared of what they would do or say,” he said. “I had no trouble with the police before.”
Thomas, 18, from south London but giving an address in Lichfield, Staffordshire, Burke, 18, of Three Oaks, East Sussex, and Alexander, 19 of Thornton Heath, deny charges of manslaughter and violent disorder.
Burke further denies causing actual bodily harm to Mr Brown.
The trial continues.