07/27/2007
Scottish Man Gets 18 Months for Fatal Beating of Gay Friend
Gordon Fyvie, a Scottish man who revealed to his "friend" Neal Todd that he was gay at a party, received a beating from Todd that was so severe he was left unconscious and covered with bruises while his "friends" continued drinking. Fyvie, a Salvation Army worker, died 12 days later. Doctors on his original hospital visit following the beating had failed to detect brain damage that eventually killed him.
The BBC reports: "In court, Todd admitted assaulting and injuring Mr Fyvie by repeatedly punching and kicking him on the face and body. His solicitor said Todd was 'extremely remorseful' and had no idea his victim had been so badly injured. He told the court that Todd had become addicted to White Lightning cider and drinking it had made him 'irrational'. He had suffered alcohol-related 'visions and voices' in the past."
A judge has sentenced Todd to just 18 months in prison.
Posted 4:00 PM EST by Andy Towle in Crime, News, Scotland | Permalink
Like it?
Subscribe to FREE Towleroad daily headlines with our RSS feed!
RECENT STORIES:
Comments
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.
18 months. That's what I love about the UK: you can get away with murder. Literally.
Posted by: PC | Jul 27, 2007 4:12:53 PM
Eighteen months?! That's horrific and bewildering!
Truly awful.
Posted by: Tyler | Jul 27, 2007 4:21:11 PM
So let me get this straight...He's addicted... to beer.
Shades of Dan White anyone?
Posted by: kitchenbeard | Jul 27, 2007 4:21:37 PM
Yes....the UK is totally out of it when it comes to murder sentences. You can kill 2 or 3 children in the most horrific way and the Judge will tell you what a dispicable human you are, then give you 9 years for the murders and you will be out in 5.
Posted by: Joshua | Jul 27, 2007 4:23:46 PM
should we be surprised that this happened in scotland? i dunno.
Posted by: nic | Jul 27, 2007 4:25:04 PM
This is obscene. But then the prisons are so overcrowded in the UK, they are letting people out early. It beggars belief.
Posted by: atheist | Jul 27, 2007 4:28:02 PM
WTF ever! While the murderer was beaten the crap out of his "friend" the party their "friends" continued drinking? Come on. how drunk do you have to be not to notice that you should stop the attacker or at least call the cops?
Posted by: Bloggernista | Jul 27, 2007 4:31:09 PM
This man BEAT A FRIEND TO DEATH and only has to spend 1.5 years of his life in prison.
I could care less how "remorseful" he is. He is a cold-blooded murderer. If he knew he had issues with alcohol, he should never have taken a drink!
Not good, guys, not good.
Posted by: Jonathon | Jul 27, 2007 4:38:39 PM
"He had suffered alcohol-related 'visions and voices' in the past." TOTAL BS!!!!!!!
He gets to live and be "remorseful"! I am sure that Gordon would love to be alive today and be "remorseful" for having told this ass hole, I mean friend, that he was gay! OUTRAGEOUS AND ABSOLUTELY INEXCUSEABLE. Neal Todd deserves to never see the light of day...18 months is an insult. And on what basis? Murder is murder. You can call for hate crimes all you want but basic murder regardless of intent or motive deserves MORE THAN 18 MONTHS! Total BS!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: RB | Jul 27, 2007 4:45:00 PM
Let's hope that those 1.5 years are spent at hard labor, making big ones into little ones on the rock pile.
Remorseful my ass. And that stupid excuse of "the beer made me do it" is a crock of horseshit. If the beer made him do it, then he should be court-ordered to never touch alcohol again after release from prison.
Those "friends" who watched the whole thing should have been tried as accomplices, or at the very least convicted of depraved indifference.
Dan White, indeed.
Posted by: Brian | Jul 27, 2007 4:47:01 PM
The British justice system is ridiculously lenient on violent crime. This is also true of many former colonies like Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
There's nothing new or shocking here. It's very common for a murderer or rapist in these countries to serve only 2-4 years.
Posted by: John | Jul 27, 2007 4:50:55 PM
18 months... that's par for the course in Europe... There's no crime heinous or brutal enough that will get you more than 18 months in jail. It's barbaric, really. Violent crime is worth doing the time in most of Europe these days... even pre-meditated murder rarely gets more than 2 to 3 years.
Posted by: Dan Cobb | Jul 27, 2007 5:28:39 PM
A literal case of adding insult-to-injury is the poor medical care the deceased received. Under "normal" circumstances his brain injury would/ should have been picked up much earlier had there been adequate & serial assessments of his neurologic status.
Judicial & medical negligance. Pity there's no vigilante group to right this wrong.
Posted by: zabadak | Jul 27, 2007 5:28:45 PM
That is really fucking sad...just unbelievable!
Posted by: Chris | Jul 27, 2007 5:31:36 PM
Europeans are too cheap to build prisons and can't imagine that their little utopias produce criminals, so they give these slap on the wrist sentences as a way of hiding the truth. Then they accuse the US of being a police state with barbaric sentencing laws. Tony Blair was toughening up the laws in the UK but ran out of prison room, so judges are under orders to keep the sentences to a minimum. House arrest is also popular. Murderers in the US with no priors I think serve an average of 7 years, though more if they are black or poor. I think half the murder convictions are against minorities. It would be interesting to compare statistics.
Posted by: anon (gmail.com) | Jul 27, 2007 5:35:30 PM
That's so terrible.
Posted by: fangirlhater | Jul 27, 2007 5:36:51 PM
Although I agree that this is a horrendous crime with an unreasonably lenient sentence, I do have to point out to you fellows that the murder rate in Britain and in European countries is significantly...significantly lower than in the US even though our sentences are much harsher. Building prisons and filling them for long periods of time, alone, does not solve crime. It's a bit more complex than that.
Posted by: Scott | Jul 27, 2007 5:56:20 PM
Good point Scott. We in the US should be a little slower about pointing a finger at the violence in other countries.
Posted by: db | Jul 27, 2007 5:59:40 PM
With any luck maybe he'll make some friends in prison...the kind of friend like he was to Gordon Fyvie. I wouldn't wish him beaten to death, of course....but maybe a few good butt-fuckings from his "friends" wouldn't hurt.
Unless, of course, they were so rough they tore something....
Posted by: Rude Boy | Jul 27, 2007 7:19:58 PM
I love some of the comments here....some much ignorance, prejudice and insecuity. Well, if it makes you feel better about yourselves and your own countires, go for it.
Posted by: EvilEuropean | Jul 28, 2007 2:39:26 AM
scotland's national motto is, "nemo me impune lacessit", which translates to "no one provokes me with impunity." who can blame, then, neal todd for reacting as he did to the provocation of his friend. clearly, the motto was foremost in the judge's mind when he pronounced that sentence. how dare one man divulge to another that he is gay!? such an egregious offense cannot go unpunished.
god bless the judge, and long live scotland!
MEMO TO SELF: CANCEL ALL TRAVEL TO SCOTLAND AND OTHER BARBARIC COUNTRIES. AND FUCK EvilEuropean(s)
Posted by: nic | Jul 28, 2007 2:50:33 AM
"Under "normal" circumstances his brain injury would/ should have been picked up much earlier had there been adequate & serial assessments of his neurologic status"...you are correct Zabadak! This should serve as notice that Michael Moore and his Sicko project are not always correct. Afterall, this did happe in a country with socialized medicine. Something to think about...
Posted by: RB | Jul 28, 2007 11:00:34 AM
Evileuropean is right in that America is replete with ignorance, prejudice, and insecurity. However, I rather think that the recent race riots in various European countries (as well as a host of other examples) proves that these are not attributes that are exclusive to Americans.
I don't care where you're from or what kind of opinions you have about your (and our) judicial system... an 18 month sentence for murder is offensive to the memory of the man who died.
Posted by: Brian | Jul 28, 2007 1:08:42 PM
My family is from this area (I'm from the Angus clan). Perth is a small town and in spite of the incredibly light sentence Mr Todd will not have it easy once he is out of the gaol. The Scots are not known to forgive so easy and the memories of this incident will keep him ostracised for life.
My heartfelt condolences to Gordon's family and true friends. My heartfelt embarrassment for you lot that paint us all as evil. You unfortunately propel the myth of the Ugly American.
Posted by: Gary | Jul 28, 2007 1:24:22 PM
I have to question the accuracy of people who generalize about "the justice system in Europe." Anybody who's traveled there knows that there are dramatic differences in the legal systems of (for instance) Poland, Denmark, Great Britain, Spain, and Croatia... just as there are dramatic cultural differences.
It makes even less sense than making sweeping generalizations lumping the legal systems of Mississippi, Oregon, Texas, Vermont, and California... oh, that's right. You guys do that, too!
Posted by: Mad Mick | Jul 28, 2007 2:17:54 PM