the teachers failed to take it seriously. "She said pupils had accused her son of being gay and had beaten him last Friday." Six months after the murder, his father said, "I spoke to him and he was crying that he was being bullied and being called names. He was being called 'gay'." In the New Statesman two years later, when there had still been no convictions for the crime, Peter Tatchell, gay human rights campaigner, said, "In the days leading up to his murder in south London in November 2000, he was subjected to vicious homophobic abuse and assaults," and asked why the authorities had ignored this before and after his death. In July 2005, Lauren Harries, a trans woman, was attacked along with her father and brother in their home in Cardiff by eight youths who shouted the word "tranny" while beating their victims. One youth pleaded guilty to inflicting grievous bodily harm and was sentenced to two years probation; his accomplices were not formally identified or charged. In April 2006 a man was jailed for a homophobic attack on an openly gay Anglican priest. Rev Dr Barry Rathbone was sitting in a park in Bournemouth, Dorset when Martin Powell and his girlfriend approached and spoke to him. Rathbone informed them that it was a cruising area, then Powell produced a metal baseball bat, called him a 'queer', and started to hit him. On 25 July 2008, 18-year-old Michael Causer was attacked by a group of men at a party in Liverpool, and died from his injuries. It is alleged that he was killed because he was gay. On 23 October 2008, 23-year-old gay hairdresser Daniel Jenkinson was the victim of a homophobic attack in a Preston club. His attacker, Neil Bibby, also from Preston, was sentenced to 200 hours' unpaid work, a three-month weekend curfew, and ordered to pay £2,000 compensation after he pleaded guilty to assault. Daniel needed facial reconstruction surgery after the attack, and said he was too scared to go out in the city. On 3 March 2009 in Bromley, south London, 59-year-old Gerry Edwards was stabbed to death by an assailant shouting homophobic abuse. His partner of over twenty years, 56-year-old Chris Bevan, was also stabbed and admitted to hospital in a critical condition. The police dealing with the case said they had an open mind, but were treating it as a homophobic