(posted 7097 days ago)Evening Standard
12/11/04 - News and city sectionGay killing 'filmed on mobile'
By Ross Lydall, Local Government Correspondent, Evening StandardMobile phone photographs were taken as a gang beat gay barman David Morley to death, Ken Livingstone claims.
Mr Morley, 37 , from Chiswick, was attacked last month as he sat chatting to a friend on the South Bank.
Police believe he was set upon because he was gay. He suffered a ruptured spleen, fractured ribs and 40 separate bruises from a hail of punches and kicks.
Mr Livingstone, who campaigns against homophobia, made his claims when he was asked about Mr Morley's death at a public question session in Acton last night.
Three teenagers appeared in court this week accused of murdering Mr Morley. Market trader Barry Lee, 19, of Kennington, and two 16-year-olds, who cannot be named for legal reasons, appeared before Camberwell magistrates.
Mr Morley, who worked at the Birdcage pub in Chiswick, was a survivor of the nail bombing of the Admiral Duncan pub in Soho in 1999 which killed three people.
He was attacked in Jubilee Gardens near Hungerford Bridge, now renamed the Golden Jubilee Bridge.
Mr Livingstone also said last night that he was working with gay rights group Stonewall to educate children about gay and lesbian lifestyles to reduce "rampant homophobia" in schools. They are drawing up teaching aids to spread tolerance and will organise a conference next year for all London schools "to help teachers tackle this discrimination".
Mr Livingstone said: "Broadly, London is a very tolerant city. There is much less racism, much less sexism than other great cities around the world. When you go into our schools and colleges there is very little overt racism and sexism. There is completely open and rampant homophobia."
He said part of the reason for this was Section 28, which made it "illegal to have any discussion about homosexuality" in schools. The law has since been changed.
The Mayor used the public meeting to express concerns about government plans for 24-hour licensing and his wish for new community police teams to crack down on low-level antisocial behaviour.
He said he feared the effect that round-the-clock opening could have in suburban town centres, and said late-night venues should be forced to contribute towards the cost of extra policing.
He said: "We say that the publicans and clubs must pay the cost of the extra policing. We have not got the Government to agree to that yet but we are absolutely signed up. We all want a 24-hour city but not down our street."
Richard Barnes, the London Assembly member for Ealing and Hillingdon and Tory police spokesman on the Metropolitan Police Authority, said: "It has a potential for disaster in outer boroughs."
Mr Livingstone said he had met incoming Commissioner Sir Ian Blair to discuss plans to further roll-out six-strong teams of community officers to neighbourhoods in each of the 32 boroughs under the Met's control. The Mayor said: "I said it was my intention that as we get these neighbourhood police on the streets they should start to enforce the laws."
Find this story at http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/14672397?version=1
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