“I’m not f*****g gay”: Carer stabbed man 12 times in homophobic rage after they had sex – Manchester Evening News
A carer stabbed another man 12 times in a homophobic rage after they had sex.
Stephen Taylor yelled “I’m not f***ing gay” as he grabbed a knife and attacked his victim, Liverpool Crown Court heard.
The 24-year-old was drinking at the man’s flat and flew into a rage when his victim declined to perform a sex act on him, the Liverpool Echo reports.
Taylor, who claimed he was defending himself after his victim hit him over the head with a bottle, was cleared of wounding with intent but found guilty of wounding.
He has been jailed for three years after a court heard how his victim has been left “physically and emotionally broken” by the attack.
The victim, who worked as a mental health nurse, went for drinks with friends at a house in Wirral on June 4 last year, the court heard.
Taylor arrived, introduced himself as “Tyson” and said he worked in a nursing home.
The victim was told by a friend that Taylor, from Birkenhead, was “straight” and during a chat with Taylor the victim told him he was gay.
The man got a taxi home, before Taylor messaged him on Snapchat to tell him he had left his phone charger behind.
Neil Bisarya, prosecuting, said the victim paid for Taylor to get a taxi to his flat at around 3am and he went inside for a drink.
The pair were drinking gin when Taylor suddenly “leant over and grabbed his penis”, Mr Bisarya said.
The victim said “bloody hell Tyson, what you doing?”, to which Taylor replied: “Don’t you want a bit of fun?”, the court heard.
The man told him “you’re straight, I’m gay” and they laughed it off, only for Taylor to do it again.
Mr Bisarya said Taylor kissed the victim, who reciprocated and let Taylor perform a sex act on him, before the pair went to his bedroom for sex.
The court heard Taylor wanted to have sex a different way, which the victim said was “not his thing”.
They returned to the lounge and carried on drinking, before the victim declined to perform a sex act on Taylor.
Mr Bisarya said Taylor suddenly stabbed him in the chest with a knife the victim said had been in his kitchen.
Taylor jumped on top of the man, grabbed his penis in a “painful and hard squeeze”, then stabbed him in the neck, he said.
Mr Bisarya said Taylor stabbed his victim in the back as he tried to escape and stabbed him in his face “narrowly missing his eyes”, which caused his victim to fall onto a coffee table.
The victim hit Taylor over the head with a glass to defend himself, the court heard.
Mr Bisarya said Taylor choked him, before the man tripped Taylor and grabbed the blade.
The victim pleaded “let me call an ambulance, you don’t need to do this”, but Taylor refused and shouted “homophobic” remarks, he told the court. .
“Mr Taylor was shouting, saying ‘I’m not f***ing gay’. Mr Taylor was in a rage. He was calling him a ‘f***ing f*****’,” Mr Bisarya said.
The victim “thought he was going to die”, the court heard, and when he tried to leave, Taylor “rugby tackled him” in the hallway.
Mr Bisarya said Taylor grabbed him and they fell down some stairs, before Taylor left and the victim called police.
Officers arrived at 5.54am and found him “covered in blood”.
They arrested Taylor in Wallasey following reports of a naked man in the street.
Taylor, of Mallory Road, Tranmere, told police “I didn’t do it” and later gave two no comment interviews.
The victim suffered an “extensive open wound” 10cm long, 5cm wide and 5cm deep to the left side of his neck, the court heard.
His injuries included 1cm cuts to his right cheek and below his left eye; two stab wounds to the right side of his chest; a stab wound to his left armpit; cuts to his left arm; and fractures to his right foot.
In a victim statement, the man said: “I feel I will never be the same again.
“What Stephen Taylor has done to me has both physically and emotionally broken me.”
The victim, who can no longer work on an acute mental health unit and has left his flat, said he was undergoing counselling and is medicated for sleep problems, depression, anxiety and PTSD.
The court heard he hoped his attacker would realise the impact he’d had on him, as Taylor shook his head in the dock.
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Anna Duke, defending, said Taylor, of previous good character, argued the victim was “the aggressor initially”.
She said: “The defendant maintains that he was struck over the head with a bottle and, as a reaction to being assaulted first by the complainant, he instinctively grabbed a knife.”
Ms Duke said it was Taylor’s case the blade was on a table where the victim was “cutting drugs”.
The lawyer said Taylor had worked in a nursing home and moved in for six weeks to protect residents from him potentially bringing in Covid.
She said he left the job because he couldn’t cope due to the court proceedings and now worked as a labourer, where he could be “more or less a robot”.
Urging the judge to spare him jail, Ms Duke said Taylor insisted it was not “a homophobic attack” and that after they had “consensual sex”, the victim assaulted him.
Judge Garrett Byrne said Taylor had “pestered” the victim for more sex.
He told him: “After he declined, you lost your temper and attacked him.”
(Image: Liverpool Echo)
The judge said he heard evidence from both men and watched CCTV from inside the flat at Taylor’s trial.
He told Taylor: “You were the aggressor at all times, other than when the victim was forced to hit you on the head with the glass.”
Taylor cried as he continued: “Having seen the CCTV, it shows you are not trying to get out… it shows you detaining the victim in order to continue the attack.”
Judge Byrne said it was “at least in part motivated by some homophobia, given the remarks attributed to you by the victim, which I conclude you did in fact use”.
The judge said the victim broke his foot when he fell down the stairs “as a result of you holding on to him, trying to detain him”.
Judge Byrne jailed Taylor for three years, as the defendant ripped off and threw his tag, shouting: “You can f***ing have that mate.”
A crying woman hugged and kissed him over the dock glass, then wailed: “Please don’t take him.”
Taylor was on a qualifying home curfew and 250 days will count towards his sentence.