In the Media

Two face long jail terms for homophobic murder of barman

PUBLISHED May 16, 2006
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Two men face jail terms of 30 years or more after admitting the homophobic murder of the gay barman Jody Dobrowski. Thomas Pickford, 25, unemployed and of no fixed address, and decorator Scott Walker, 33, from Clapham, changed their pleas to guilty when they appeared at the Old Bailey yesterday.

Mr Dobrowski, 24, was punched and kicked to death on Clapham Common, a known gay cruising area, on October 15 last year. He was alive when police found him but he died in hospital the next day from severe neck, head and facial injuries. His wounds were so horrific he was unrecognisable to family members and had to be identified through his fingerprints.

Yesterday Crispin Aylett, prosecuting, said the judge should sentence Pickford and Walker to at least 30 years in prison because of the "appalling" nature of the crime. "This was a murder aggravated by sexual orientation. I do not think it is disputed on the defendants' part that this is the case," he said. "Both were involved in a premeditated plan to attack a gay man. There was no premeditation to kill him but the attack quickly increased in ferocity. We say both men were involved as principals. We say there was a shared intention to kill."

A witness to the attack said Walker had been the more aggressive attacker, and his co-accused, Pickford, had told how Walker assaulted the victim, stuffing a sock and his own shoe in his mouth. The court also heard that the pair had attacked another man in the area two weeks earlier.

Mr Dobrowski worked as an assistant bar manager at Bar Risa Jongleurs in Camden, north London, having moved to the capital from his family home in Gloucestershire. Colleagues described him as warm and popular, and his friends said he had been enjoying the happiest time of his life when he died.

He had not yet "come out" to his family, but they said after his death that they had been aware of his sexuality and accepted it. He briefly studied biology at Cardiff University before dropping out and his friends suggested he had wanted to move to London for its more permissive attitudes towards homosexuality.

On the night of his murder, he had visited friends in Clapham, leaving them at 10.30pm. He was attacked around midnight. Passersby heard his screams and alerted police, who had recently stepped up patrols on the common because there had been other homophobic attacks there. Later reports said witnesses had heard men yelling homophobic abuse as they beat him.

One man had tried to intervene, but the two men threatened to attack him if he did not leave them alone.

Pickford swayed from side to side as he entered his plea, while his co-accused, who has a shaved head and tattoos on his neck, looked at the floor.

The two were remanded in custody for sentence on June 16.

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