02/10/2006
Homophobic Stabbing Stuns Cambridge, England
Two teenagers, 17 and 18, have been arrested in connection with a gruesome attempted murder after they allegedly followed a 24-year-old man home from the Bird in Hand pub in Cambridge, England. The victim was "repeatedly knifed in the back and shoulders in the doorway of his home."
The victim, who spent the night drinking in the pub and then reportedly left with the two teens, is in stable condition at a local hospital. Police found the visible signs of a struggle, including blood and a knife in the area near the victim's home.
The Bird in Hand and another nearby pub, the Fleur de Lys, are primarily gay venues. An officer investigating the crime has said that it appears the victim was singled out because he is gay.
Teenagers Held After Stab Frenzy [cambridge evening news]
Posted 5:00 PM EST by Andy Towle in Current Affairs | Permalink
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Britain has seen a huge increase in the number of knife-related injuries and murders. While not a gun-infested nation, it appears that violence in the UK is becoming more of a problem. This is also the case in much of the rest of Europe. In Brussels, knife-related murders are frequent, as they are in the suburbs of Paris.
That having been said, this is clearly another hate crime. The assailants might be what are referred to as chavs…sort of the dregs of the disenfranchised urban youth. There is a strong anti-gay component as there is in the States in the hip hop circles.
Posted by: JT | Feb 10, 2006 5:11:15 PM
Hmmmmmm...and what's different about Europe recently that could be related to this violent crime increase?
Posted by: Myackie | Feb 10, 2006 5:20:38 PM
Speaking for my generation, I am appalled and repulsed, ashamed and regretful. I have to think that the disgustingly conservative shift in political rhetoric- filled with hateful speech and culminating in hateful action that has taken place over the course of many of our developmental years- is somewhat responsible. Not all teenagers are like Robida or these two English kids! Many of us are extremely progressive in terms of homosexuality. Most of the kids my age accept and even experiment!
Posted by: Hope | Feb 10, 2006 6:08:37 PM
If, as I suspect, these two young men are considered Chavs, then consider this: Chavs are disenfranchised, they have no work, they feel like there is little hope for them in the UK. They are broke in terms of finances and spirit. They lash out against the "other." That could be middle class people, it could be gays or lesbians, it could be Southeast Asians or Muslims. They want to punish someone for what has happened to them.
The parallel to the experience of the German people after World War I is dramatic: the German population was living in squalor and felt disenfranchised. They were suffering for something over which they had no control. Under the leadership of Uncle Adolph, they punished the “other”—Jews, Queers, Gypsies, etc.
In the US, under Uncle George, many people from disparate minority groups are feeling disenfranchised. Who’s the “other” in America?
Posted by: JT | Feb 10, 2006 6:23:04 PM
CHAV stands for Council Housing and Violent, a term used by the police to describe kids from what we would call, "The Projects". They live in government housing, "on the dole", receiving free healthcare, housing, food, and ample public services. Much better than ghetto kids here receive, but just as depressing. Still, they are under-educated, and have few employment options in such a small country, with such ridgid social strata.
Whenever you make people dependent upon government assistance, instead of working to make them independent, you create a class of people who feel helpless, and have nothing to loose by being violent and destructive.
Posted by: Jay Croce | Feb 10, 2006 7:46:28 PM
This is the stuff that just makes me mad to the bone at people who do shit like this. They chose to do this hateful thing to a person. How can you do that? And then blame it on "becasue he was gay"? This makes no sense to me. They are seriously needing a reality check. And they knifed him in the back, they weren't even brave enough to do it to his face. They had to sneak up on him like the little rats they are. Shameful. I am appaled.
Posted by: Rudy! | Feb 10, 2006 7:47:42 PM
As more of these atrocities happen lately, I wonder: are they the dark half of whatever chasm is widening these days with kids? It seems young guys now have no excuse not to be relatively enlightened about gayness, certainly far more so than a generation or two ago. As a lot are, without a doubt. Just as it appears that their asshole counterparts are more violently on the move.
It's literally, again, a chasm in my mind's eye, a widening rip in the landscape. I don't like to think of how many are on the other side. I AM glad I stopped going to bars a long time ago, but I'm not nuts about what's reinforcing my gladness. Hell, it used to be that I just couldn't take the music. I was afraid for my sensibilities, not my life.
Posted by: Jacko | Feb 10, 2006 9:16:36 PM
This kind of thing isn't surprising, no matter how much gay folk strive to live a more out life there will be a few very twisted and dangerous world. I think that as a gay man myself this ought to be treated as an opportunity for other gays to work even closer together than we have in the past. We all live in the same dangerous world. I hope for better times, I fight for my right to live in the way that is true to myself, and I encourage others to do the same. The last thing we should embrace is fear.
Posted by: dhbear | Feb 11, 2006 9:28:24 AM
I'm not embracing fear, DH. I just don't think a Happy Hour is worth the moments of mistrust and suspicion I'd pass through, every time a young, maybe a little out-of-place, guy walked in.
Does that mean they win? Not in my book. When I already refrain from going to a scene that is, generally speaking, a downer for gay men period, they don't win a damn thing. If we're going to work together to be stronger, let's do it away from Tequila Night and Stripper Sunday.
Posted by: Jacko | Feb 11, 2006 11:09:16 AM
I'm afraid a lot more of this is going to happen--they can allow themselves to feel fully validated by so many governments and churches. Disgusting.
Posted by: Will | Feb 11, 2006 11:30:49 AM
this is somewhat ironic in light of the news out Tory chair Francis Maude "has revealed fears that his Party's past anti-gay policies may have been a contributing factor to his homosexual brother’s death."
The interview's at www.pinknews.co.uk
Posted by: IseFire | Feb 11, 2006 4:25:10 PM
The gay lifestyle is more accepted. People hear more about gays in the news, on television and in the movies. The youth are growing up around this kind of introduction to gay lifestyle. Some accept and some don't. People are not going to change over night. When you came out to your parents did they accept you right away or did it take a few minutes? Society needs a chance to catch up. Some kids chose to reject and punish a society they feel has failed them. They lash out at the perceived problem of their ills. It could be non whites. It could be whites. It could mexicans. It could be gays and lesbians. It could be poor people. It could be Muslims (well in that case it would be ok). This increase in violence is probably due to a breakdown in the communication of the family and community. We hear more about these crimes because we have vast amounts of information pouring into our homes twenty four hours a day. People hear about this violence become desensitized to it.
Children have grown up with this graphic violence all of their lives. They see it on tv news, in the movies, and on the internet. I remember watching a beheading in Iraq on the internet last year. It was one of the most disgusting things I have seen but I watched it. After the second time it was less disgusting. It became less real. The same thing is happening everywhere. You cannot blame this violence on the political climate. This world is a violent place. Even if we lived in a hippy peace and love kind of boring world - mother nature herself would revolt and tear it apart. This is a world of violence. Get used to it.
Gotta go I am going to go out to some 18 and over club. I am not worried we stab each other in the back almost every day in LA
Posted by: Matthew Schooler | Feb 11, 2006 9:23:21 PM
It seems that that the two teenagers who have now been charged with attempted murder had themselves spent the evening drinking in the pretty-exclusively gay pub (certainly on a Friday night it is). They were arrested _really quickly_ suggesting that either they were known to the pub regulars or to the police (from CCTV?) . Although there are definitely opportunities to be "jumped" between the pub and where this guy lives, that isn't what happened. All very worrying. (I live in the next street from the attack, and go to that pub from time-to-time).
Posted by: JonathanW | Feb 12, 2006 6:09:54 PM
Leave a bar with strangers? The guy is an idiot and deserves to have been stabbed.
Posted by: Larry | Feb 13, 2006 12:16:44 PM
Wow, Larry, you've never EVER picked someone up from a gay bar? The guy was 24 and wanted to get laid. I don't think it's much different than what happens in straight clubs. He just happened to pick up a couple of total nutcases. It's bad luck, but not necessarily reckless behavior. Bath houses of course eliminate the "going home with a stranger" risk, among those who are looking to hook up.
Or maybe he should have just waited to meet a nice boy at church.
Posted by: Brian | Feb 16, 2006 11:33:42 AM