Killer sentenced to life for gay murder
A homophobic killer has been jailed for life after hacking a gay man to death with a meat cleaver.
Clive Wood was found guilty by Stafford Crown Court of murder yesterday.
Wood met his victim Francis Ryan at his flat in July last year and hit him round the head with a meat cleaver around 30 times, the jury heard.
The conviction comes as gay campaigners are considering setting up a charity to campaign against homophobia through encouraging law changes, staff training and fundraising concerts.
The organisation, Kiss Goodbye to Homophobia, is being set up in reaction to a spate of murders in the gay community in the last year including Jody Dobrowski on Clapham Common, Michael Fardon in Northampton and most recently 67-year-old Malcolm Bryan, who was found dead at the bottom of a stairwell in a block of flats in Portsmouth last month.
The first meeting is being held in a couple of weeks at the Boston Clipper gay pub in Northampton, which was the last place Mr Fardon was seen before he was found dead and left behind nearby rubbish bins.
The first meeting will be held in the Guidhall, Northampton, on Tuesday 17 October at 630pm.
