Plymouth teen accused of murdering gay man in suspected homophobic attack
Drew Perham, 24, died after an alleged homophobic attack (Facebook/drew.perham.9)
A 19-year-old is on trial for the alleged murder of 24-year-old Drew Perham, after prosecutors told a jury that he lured Drew to a Plymouth marina, violently assaulted him and pushed him into the water.
Layton Randle, 19, is accused of murdering Drew at King Point Marina in Millbay in the early hours of 25 January.
As reported by Plymouth Live, the court heard that police divers later found Drew’s body on the seabed after he had been in the water for around 34 hours. A post-mortem found that he died from drowning.
The prosecution alleges that Randle arranged for Drew to travel with him and others to the marina by car, then told Drew to get out of the car. Witnesses are then said to have seen Randle launch an “unprovoked and unexpected attack”, punching Drew repeatedly as he retreated towards the edge of the marina.
Prosecutors allege that Drew made no attempt to fight back and instead tried to protect his head from the blows. Randle is then accused of pushing him into the water, which was around nine degrees Celsius that night.
The court heard that bruising to Drew’s body may have been consistent with him attempting to pull himself from the water onto a nearby pontoon. He also suffered three fractured ribs, bruising and cuts to his face.
The prosecution has also pointed to alleged homophobic comments made by Randle in the aftermath. Randle is accused of repeatedly referring to Drew as a “gay lad” and, in one Snapchat conversation, allegedly calling him a homophobic slur. Prosecutors said these comments could provide the jury with “some insight” into how and why the two men ended up at the marina and why Drew was assaulted.
Randle has accepted that he assaulted Drew and has offered to plead guilty to manslaughter, but he denies intending to kill him or cause serious harm.
The court also heard that Randle allegedly discussed the attack with multiple people afterwards, including telling others that he had “beaten the s*** out of Drew” and pushed him into the water. He later recorded a video in which he described allegedly “tricking” Drew into coming to his hotel and going to the marina with him.
The trial is ongoing, and the allegations against Randle have not been proven at this time.
If you’ve been affected by this story, you can reach out to Mind on 0300 123 3393, Switchboard on 0800 0119 100 or the Samaritans on 116 123. Readers in the US can call or text 988. You can also reach Crisis Text Line by texting MHA to 741741.
