Convicted sex offender Richard Danter was sentenced to 15 years to life behind bars for what British prosecutors called the "sustained and brutal" murder of a gay university student, according to Gay Star News. He pleaded guilty to the horrific beating death of 20-year-old gay student Billy Makelow.
Danter, 31, identifies as bisexual. He and Makelow met, drank together, and danced at the Viaduct, a gay bar in Leeds, April 25. The two left the club at 2:45 a.m. to have sex under a railway arch, when Danter turned violent, kicking and stomping Makelow more than 20 times, in what police described as a "totally unprovoked attack."
"Such was the savageness and brutality of your focused attack on his head, I am driven to conclude that at that moment your intention was to kill him," said Judge Peter Collier, in pronouncing the sentence.
"You left him where you had assaulted him, helpless and dying, and went back to the nightclub."Later you went back and moved his body further into the arches, no doubt intending to make it more unlikely that he would be discovered.
"You also removed and disposed of his mobile phone, whether or not he would have been capable of calling for help himself I can never know."
In addition to dragging Makelow, who was still alive but unconscious, to a spot where his body would be harder for passersby to see, Danter stole Mankelow's passport and other items in an attempt to make it harder to identify his body, then left him for dead.
Two pedestrians found Makelow the next morning, half naked, unconscious, and bleeding profusely from his head. He died later that day in a hospital.
Danter, who has previous convictions for attempting to rape an 18 year old with learning disabilities and for robbery, said in court that he thought Makelow was already dead when he left. The judge, however, did not buy the defendant's story.
"You subjected him to an unspeakable degree of violence," Judge Collier said. "I do not accept that you did not know he was still alive. You abandoned him there under those Dark Arches. You went back, you bent down to move him. Others who found him subsequently had no difficulty in immediately realizing that he was still alive."
Following the sentencing, Maklow's family told the BBC, "Billy's family and friends are all distraught at the way Billy died, which was so senseless and unnecessary. Billy was simply out with friends having a good time with his life ahead of him. We as a family will never get over the way he died, we have lost a person of exceptional kindness and good nature. Billy's tragic loss will be felt by everyone who knew him for a long time."
