Thug jailed for beating 14-year-old while drunkenly screaming: ‘Are you gay?’
Lee Cavanagh was sentenced to two years and four months in prison. (Police)
A man who screamed homophobic slurs while beating up a 14-year-old boy has been jailed for more than two years.
The teenager, who remains anonymous for legal reasons, was walking home from school on 9 February when he saw Lee Cavanagh drunkenly fall off his bike in Seacombe, Wirral.
The boy asked if he was OK. Cavanagh responded by running towards him and grabbing him, screaming “Are you gay?” repeatedly.
Cavanagh then swung him around numerous times before punching him four or five times and eventually fleeing the scene, Joshua Sanderson-Kirk, prosecuting, told Liverpool Crown Court.
After the boy’s parents discovered what had happened, his mum then spotted Cavanagh being arrested for a separate assault on his then-girlfriend.
Cavanagh locked his girlfriend and her dog in a room and beat them after she went out with her friends on Boxing Day.
He was sentenced to a total of two years and four months on Tuesday (19 July) after pleading guilty to common assault on the 14-year-old, as well as harassment of his ex, criminal damage, and causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal
Sanderson-Kirk told the court: “She [his victim] describes cowering on the floor while trying to protect her dog, which had already been kicked by the defendant.”
The woman escaped her home when Cavanagh received a phone call. The court heard she had to carry her dog for half an hour to get to her mum’s house, while walking barefoot and bleeding from her face.
She chose not to file a police report after Cavanagh apologised to her but ended the relationship, which prompted repeated harassment from him. She eventually told police about the attack and further occasions when he had abused her.
Sanderson-Kirk said Cavanagh then began to stalk her and sent her threatening messages on Facebook including one particularly chilling message that read: “[The] beatings I’ve given you in the past are nothing compared to what you are going to get today, I’m going to jail anyway.”
He has been ordered to stay away from her for 10 years.
