Wed 18 Mar 2015 In: International News View at Wayback View at NDHA
A trial over the killing of a gay man, who was allegedly punched, kicked and beaten with a pole in a Perth toilet block, has heard he was targeted in a “vigilante attack” to rid the area of gay men. Warren Gerard Batchelor, 48, was having sex with another man in toilets at Middle Swan Reserve in Caversham in November 2013, when Daniel Wade Jones and Mark Taylor are accused of barging in. The man Batchelor was with has told the murder trial at the WA Supreme Court the victim was "king hit" and dropped to the ground instantly before being bashed and repeatedly hit with a metal pole. "It happened so quick," the witness said, as reported by AAP. "I heard the thuds and I knew instantly that they were hitting him with something hard. "I was in a lot of shock." The witness says he was assaulted and threatened with a knife but managed to get away. Batchelor suffered a fractured skull, bleeding, brain swelling and a blood clot that pushed his brain downwards. He died two days after the attack. The accused men, Jones and Taylor had been camping in the area – Taylor with his four children – when they heard gay men met at the toilets for sex. The prosecutor claims the assault on Batchelor was a vigilante attack. Taylor claims it was Jones who hit Batchelor with the pole, while Jones claims he did not enter the toilet block at all.Batchelor had been a well-known Sydney DJ under the moniker DJ Coco.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Wednesday, 18th March 2015 - 9:57am