‘Gay man kicked to death by girls’

A FRIEND of a gay man allegedly attacked in Trafalgar Square told a court yesterday he “fell like a corpse” after being punched.

Ian Baynham, 62, was subjected to homophobic taunts before being knocked to the ground and died 18 days later in hospital, jurors have heard.

Baynham had been out in Soho with his friend Philip Brown when the attack happened in September last year.

It is alleged that after he was punched by a youth, while two females kicked and stamped on him “like a scene from Clockwork Orange”.

Brown told the Old Bailey how his friend had challenged a girl who shouted “f**king faggots, f**king faggots”.

Brown said words were exchanged before his friend and the girl started kicking each other.

Baynham was punched in the head by a young man.

“I heard a noise like a crunching noise,” he said. Mr Brown said the back of his friend’s skull hit the pavement with a “cracking noise”.

“He fell like a corpse.”

Joel Alexander, 19, of Thornton Heath, south London, Rachel Burke, 18, of Three Oaks, East Sussex, and Ruby Thomas, 18, of Lichfield, Staffs, deny manslaughter.

Earlier, the court heard that when Thomas was arrested she said: “What, he died?” The trial continues.