‘I needed that’
Chilling words of girl, 16, captured on CCTV after fatal attack on doctor
A TEENAGE girl was captured on CCTV saying ‘I needed that’ after taking part in an ‘evil and sadistic’ attack that left a respected psychiatrist dying, a court heard yesterday.
Dr Gary Jenkins, described by colleagues as ‘extraordinarily unthreatening’, was confronted by a ‘lethal powder keg’ of the 16-year-old and two wouldbe robbers in a city park late at night.
They set upon the 54-year-old, who had split from his wife and had gone to the park to pick up a male partner, trying to grab his bag and subjecting him to almost 15 minutes of ‘torture’, it was alleged. Far from being ‘some sort of wilting flower caught up in something that was not of her making’, the girl took full part in the horrific violence, kicking and punching the defenceless father of two, prosecutors said.
While the attack took place out of sight of security cameras, audio was captured of her shouting ‘Money!’ as the terrified doctor ‘pleads over and over again’ for them to stop hurting him, the court heard. Afterwards she said: ‘Yeah, I needed that.’
A witness who tried to save Dr Jenkins and described the attackers as ‘evil and sadistic’ was correct, prosecutor Dafydd Enoch said. Dr Jenkins was taken to hospital after the attack in Bute Park next to Cardiff Castle in the early hours of July 20 last year. But he died of an ‘unsurvivable’ brain injury 16 days later.
Mr Enoch said he had been picked out as an ‘easy target’ then ‘left for dead’. He added: ‘It was a beating apparently motivated by greed, homophobia and a straightforward liking of violence.’
Dr Jenkins moved back to Cardiff after the breakdown of his marriage and went on to ‘explore his bisexuality’, Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court heard.
As a consultant psychiatrist he ‘always went the extra mile for patients’ but colleagues had worried about his ‘risky’ night-time activities, said Mr Enoch.
The court heard Dr Jenkins was spotted on CCTV at an Esso garage buying cigarettes and alcohol before last being seen at 9pm near the park.
His attackers – Jason Edwards, 25, Lee William Strickland, 36, and the girl, who is now 17 and cannot be named for legal reasons – positioned themselves in the park ‘to target somebody for robbery and violence’.
A witness said she seemed ‘completely sober’ while the two men appeared ‘under the influence of drink or drugs’.
Dr Jenkins was then subjected to the brutal robbery, jurors were told. A brave wit
‘Torture pure and simple’
ness who was assaulted as he tried to intervene described the three as ‘egging each other on’. They deny murder but all plead guilty to manslaughter, robbery and assault.
Mr Enoch said it had been ‘torture pure and simple’ after Dr Jenkins ‘encountered the worst traits of humankind’.
‘It is difficult to fathom the depths to which we can sink, but the unlikely combination of these three defendants produced a lethal powder keg which sadly for Dr Jenkins detonated right in front of him,’ he added.
Dr Jenkins had been ‘muchloved and admired’, while his killers had shown ‘not one scintilla of remorse’.
The trial, due to last four weeks, continues.