Murdered barman survived pub nail bomb
11/12/2004 - Gay killing 'filmed on mobile'
11/09/2004 - Fourth Teenager Charged over Gay Barman Murder
11/08/2004 - Three charged in David Morley's murder
11/06/2004 - Hundreds join tribute to gay murder victim
A gay barman beaten to death during a spate of attacks on Saturday had survived the nail bombing of a Soho pub, it has emerged.
David Morley (pictured left), 37, from Chiswick, west London, was subjected to a "savage beating" in a spate of attacks on gay clubbers in the early hours of Saturday. He later died in hospital.
Two teenagers, one white and one black, who had two young women at their sides, are being sought in connection with the attacks along the capital's South Bank.
A post mortem confirmed Mr Morley died from multiple injuries to his head and torso, having suffered 40 distinct bruises from a hail of blows.
Five years ago, Mr Morley was working behind the bar at the Admiral Duncan gay pub in Soho when it was targeted by fascist nail-bomber David Copeland, who had already struck at Asian and black targets in Brick Lane and Brixton. (source)
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The death penalty has been a difficult issue for me to resolve personally, mainly because of the argument Fiona brings up, that of putting an innocent person to death. This has happened in the United States. After the punishment was given and the person put to death, new evidence surfaces that shows the person put to death was innocent.
With new technology (DNA testing), the chances of this happening have been greatly reduced.
After Matthew Shepard was brutally killed six years ago, I changed my opinion of the death penalty. The two thugs who killed Matthew were given two life sentences to be served consecutively. They will never see freedom again. But, we will still be paying for them through our taxes. Is this justice? I don't know. Their whole existence now is to think every day for the rest of their lives what put them there in the first place. That itself is a harsh punishment.
One of them recently actually had the gall to ask for a reduced sentence. I think that for them, the death penalty wouldn't be too harsh. But we are taking a life. There's no way around that. Can we call ourselves "civilized" if we do that? Probably not. But then again, I wouldn't call demonizing an entire segment of the population (gay people) particularly civilized either.
As I said, as a left-leaning liberal I'm not the typical gung-ho capital punishment type, but it seems lenient indeed to keep murderous thugs imprisoned for life at the public's expense. Life imprisonment seems to not really provide a deterent for future perpetrators. There is really no good answer. In this case, hanging is too good for them.
As a British woman I would like to comment on the murder of David Morley. It saddens me greatly to think that even in the year 2004 innocent people are being killed because of their sexuality and my heart goes out to Davids family, friends and loved ones. The majority of the British public find these types of crimes disgusting and the murderer needs to be caught and punished. However the comment about bring back hanging in the U.K does little towards creating a caring tolerent and civilised society. I am very proud that we do not have murder by the state in this country. Dont get me wrong I am very much in favour of life meaning life and in many cases our legal system is way too soft.I do however wonder how many innocent people have been murdered on death row and I wonder how many of them were put there because they were seen as second class citizens because of their colour, sexuality,or level of poverty. As decent human beings we must campaign against murder in any shape or form.
God bless you David and may you rest in gods eternal peace and love.
You are right Darrell, both countries are guilty. I honestly thought (perhaps naively) that Britain was getting better for gay people. Over here in the U.S. it totally sucks right now, mostly because our community is being used as a political football with gay marriage by our wonderful President.
A lot of people hate us right now in the United States. I suppose they always have, but now that gay marriage is in the forefront, it's much more visible.
I hope they find who did this to David, and soon. And, I hope the punishment is severe. I will be watching the news for updates.
It's crimes like this that make liberal-lefties like me wish Britain still had capital punishment by hanging. Our governments sanction bashing by treating their gay citizens as second-class. Britain and the United States are equally guilty. I'd expect better of Britain.