‘Beaten, robbed, tortured and left for dead’
KILLERS SUBJECTED CONSULTANT TO BRUTAL ATTACK IN PARK, COURT TOLD
ACONSULTANT was “beaten, robbed, tortured, and left for dead” by two men and a teenage girl in a Cardiff park, a murder trial has been told.
Father-of-two Dr Gary Jenkins, 54, sustained life-threatening injuries in an incident in Bute Park in the early hours of Tuesday, July 20 last year and subsequently died at the University Hospital of Wales on Thursday, August 5.
Jason Edwards, 25, and Lee William Strickland, 36, both from Cardiff, and a 17-year-old girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, all deny murder and are on trial at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court.
Edwards, of Litchfield Court, Riverside, Strickland, of no fixed address, and the youth have each admitted charges of manslaughter, robbery of a bag, and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
Prosecutor Dafydd Enoch, opening the case yesterday, said the killing was motivated by “greed, homophobia, and a straightforward liking for violence”. He said the brutal beating lasted almost 15 minutes and was “torture – pure and simple”.
He told the jury: “The man at the centre of this case encountered the worst traits of humankind and despite the best efforts of one person he could not find the protection.”
Mr Enoch added: “Dr Gary Jenkins was a 54-year-old consultant psychiatrist living and working in Cardiff. On
July 20 last year in the early hours of the morning he was in Bute Park in Cardiff, where he was viciously beaten, robbed, tortured and left for dead by these three defendants in the dock.
“It was a beating apparently motivated by greed, homophobia, and a straightforward liking of violence. All three defendants accept that they all were present when Dr Jenkins was attacked.”
Mr Enoch told jurors Strickland
claimed not to have been able to hold the intent to commit murder but said: “That issue will not take you very long to resolve when you look at the nature, duration, and severity of the attack.
“[Strickland] says he was under the influence of drugs and remembers very little of the whole thing and did not carry the requisite self-intent. He says his intake of alcohol and drugs resulted in an impairment of his mental function. A drunken intent is still an intent and there can be no suggestion he didn’t know what he was doing having been transported to a parallel universe. That will be torpedoed. He was the author of his own actions at all times.”
Edwards told police he had no knowledge of the incident and denied being in Bute Park at all, the jury was told.
Mr Enoch said: “In the run-up to the trial his position shifted. He said he was with his co-defendants in the park but he took no part in it. He was aware there was an incident involving the other two.
“What’s his position now? He’s shifted yet again because yesterday he pleaded guilty to manslaughter and robbery of Dr Jenkins and an assault on the witness who tried to intervene, Lewis Williams.”
The youth defendant, who was 16 at the time of the incident, admitted both punching and kicking Dr Jenkins, the prosecutor said.
“To the police she pointed the finger at both of her co-defendants, saying they were the principal perpetrators and she only joined in half-heartedly because she was scared of the other two.”
Mr Enoch said that while the teenager lived at home with her mother at the time of the incident, she “was no ordinary 16-year-old”, adding: “She was to take a proactive and enthusiastic role in what was to occur in that park.
“We ask you not to make the mistake in this case in assuming that 16-year-old was because of her age and sex was some sort of wilting flower caught up in something not of her making.”
Dr Jenkins was born and bred in Cardiff, but later moved to London and met his wife at medical school and went on to have two daughters, Mr Enoch told the court.
He said Dr Jenkins, who was openly bisexual, became estranged from his wife and moved back to Cardiff six years ago.
“Dr Jenkins was in the habit of attending Bute Park in Cardiff at night looking for sexual contact with likeminded men and would drink heavily as well,” Mr Enoch told the court.
“His sexual proclivities were to be his undoing. By engaging in that activity he rendered himself hopelessly vulnerable and was an easy target as he wandered about Bute Park. By its nature the activity he engaged in was risky.”
Mr Enoch said the three defendants went to Bute Park “to target somebody for robbery and violence”, adding: “They knew what went on in that park at that time of night and the vulnerable nature of people frequenting that part of Cardiff.”
One witness, Owen Hill, thought the trio were “a bit rowdy” and, having sat with them for a few minutes “started to get a dodgy vibe” and left. Mr Enoch told the jury: “You can conclude they obviously saw him as a potential target.
“[The youth] took the lead from the start. They pretended they were interested in sexual encounters which demonstrates clearly what those three were about that night. They were in search for a vulnerable gay man in the park looking for sex.”
The prosecutor then went on to describe the attack itself, which he said “was witnessed at close range in part by another man in the park for the same reasons as Mr Hill and Dr Jenkins”.
Mr Enoch told the court: “Lewis Williams is an important person in this case. He was on his way out of the park when he heard some kind of altercation. As he walked up near the Summerhouse Cafe he saw a man with two men and a girl shouting and kicking at him.
“Mr Williams was rather brave and went towards them shouting: ‘Stop, leave them alone’. He even tried to physically intervene but got assaulted himself and was told in no uncertain terms where to go.”
CCTV footage from the Summerhouse Cafe in the park did not capture any images as the shutters were down but there is audio of the attack.
Mr Enoch said: “During the course of the lengthy attack, Dr Jenkins was pleading with those people to stop hurting him and he pleads again and again until he can speak no more. You can hear moans and groans as the life is kicked out of him.”
Mr Enoch said the attack “lasted for nearly 15 minutes” and those responsible were “indulging in sport”. He told the jury: “It was torture – pure and simple.”
Concluding his opening, Mr Enoch said: “It’s 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 didn’t deserve what happened to him – he was a muchloved and admired individual. Not one scintilla of remorse has been shown by any of these defendants who were prepared to leave him for dead.”
The prosecutor said each of the defendants were guilty of murder and “there can only be one sensible conclusion”.
The case, which is expected to last four weeks and is being heard in front of Judge Daniel Williams, continues.