Two teenage schoolgirls killed a gay man because of his sexuality in a scene reminiscent of the film A Clockwork Orange, a court heard on Monday.
Ruby Thomas and Rachael Burke were just 17 when they and friend Joel Alexander, then 18, attacked civil servant Ian Baynham in Trafalgar Square after an alcohol-fuelled night out.
They hurled homophobic abuse as the openly gay 62-year-old walked past them with his partner, the Old Bailey was told.
As he confronted them, Mr Baynham was knocked unconscious by one blow to the head from Alexander, falling to the ground and suffering a severe brain injury.
The girls then stamped on his chest and head as he lay helpless on the blood-spattered pavement, the court was told. He died in hospital three weeks later.
Mr Baynham, who was enjoying an evening out to celebrate getting a new job on September 25 last year, was a 'defenceless' victim, the jury heard.
Brian Altman QC, prosecuting said: "The scene was Trafalgar Square, in the heart of London, home to the National Gallery, Nelson's column and the plinths.
"On one side is the South African embassy and the pavement outside it was the scene of a despicable incident in which Ian Baynham was brutally attacked by these defendants, who attacked him with such a degree of violence that he died from his injuries 18 days later."
"Off her face" He added that one witness likened the level of violence to a scene from the film A Clockwork Orange, the 1971 Stanley Kubrick film which caused outrage on release over its depiction of a gang of teenagers carrying out orgies of sadistic violence.
The court heard one onlooker described the violence as being like a scene from the 1971 movie 'A Clockwork Orange'.
Mr Altman added: "The story of this case is an all too familiar depressing tale of drunken, loutish behaviour, but what these defendants did that night went far beyond mere antisocial behaviour.
"Two of them are teenage girls, fuelled by copious amounts of alcohol. They confronted Mr Baynham with abuse and then together with Joel Alexander they jointly participated in a violent attack on a defenceless man in public."
The jury was shown grainy CCTV footage of the trio, who had travelled together from their homes in South London, at various stages of their evening.
The girls could be seen swigging from cans of drink. A friend who saw them earlier that night described Thomas, a trainee beauty therapist, as "off her face", flirting with men who walked past and trying to pick fights.
Shortly before attacking Mr Baynham, Burke and Thomas tried to pick a fight with a group of black youngsters, it was claimed.
One witness also said he saw them pointing at another pair of gay men, walking hand in hand, and one saying, "We can do them", with the other nodding enthusiastically.

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