SCOTLAND: A man has been jailed for life and another for nine years for beating a gay man to death in a "callous and brutal" attack in a city centre park.
James Kerr, a catering worker, died in hospital after being repeatedly punched and kicked in the face and head by three people in April. They had hunted him down and attacked him for allegedly "trying it on" with one of the gang.
After leaving Kerr, 51, dying in a pool of blood in South Inch park in central Perth, the group went to a party nearby, where they boasted about the attack.
As he left the scene of the attack, the teenager was heard remarking: "I hate gays and poofters."
"He had major head injuries, and the photographs of his body are horrifying," the judge said. "This was a killing of a callous and brutal character, which appears to have been marked by a homophobic element."
As all three youths looked straight ahead at the high court in Edinburgh, the judge said the most violent assailant, Meehan, 19, had launched a "savage and sustained attack upon a defenceless man who had done you no harm".
His assault was so vicious and sustained that Kerr died without recovering consciousness. Meehan later told a social worker he believed Kerr was a paedophile.
The Scottish parliament is to introduce new "hate crime" legislation bringing Scottish courts into line with those of England and Wales by allowing them to increase a sentence to take overt prejudice into account, particularly over disability and sexuality.
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