Difference between revisions of "David Morley"

Revision as of 20:15, 20 March 2012

David Morley (3 October 1967–30 October 2004) was a barman who was fatally attacked by a group of youths near Waterloo Station in London on the morning of October 30, 2004. The attack garnered widespread media coverage as a fatality of a violent trend known as happy slapping and due to the original (false) belief that the attack was motivated by homophobia.

In December 2005 four youths were found guilty of Morley's manslaughter. A 15 year old girl, Chelsea O'Mahoney was sentenced to an 8 year custodial sentence and her co-defendants Reece Sargeant (21), Darren Case (18) and David Blenman (17), all from Kennington in South London were sentenced to 12 years each. They had in fact been prosecuted for murder, however the jury returned a verdict of manslaughter as they are permitted to do so.

Morley was famously known in the gay community of London as 'Sinders'. He was a manager at the Admiral Duncan pub when it was the target of a nail bomb attack in 1999 as part of the attacks against London's minorities by David Copeland. Morley suffered burns during the attack but it was reported he continued to help others in the area despite his own injuries.

At the time of his death he was working at another gay bar, Bromptons, located in Earls Court.

External links

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/3969763.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4637382.stm

http://www.david-morley.co.uk/