Jury played 15-minute audio clip of fatal attack on psychiatrist in Cardiff park

The jury in the trial of two men and a teenage girl accused of murdering a “well-loved” father-of-two have been played a 15-minute audio clip of the fatal attack.

Dr Gary Jenkins, 54, was “viciously attacked and tortured” in Bute Park, Cardiff, in the early hours of July 20 2021.

The consultant psychiatrist, who worked in the Ely area of the city, died of his injuries at University Hospital of Wales 16 days later on August 5.

Jason Edwards, 25, Lee Strickland, 36, and a 17-year-old girl who cannot be named for legal reasons, are being tried for his murder at Merthyr Crown Court in South Wales.

Before the recording was played, members of the jury and those attending the courtroom were warned about its disturbing contents.

The recording, taken from a CCTV camera on the nearby Summerhouse cafe, is of the minutes during which Dr Jenkins was “cruelly beaten, robbed, tortured and left for dead by these three defendants”, prosecutor Dafydd Enoch told the court.

Beginning just before 1am, a man identified as Dr Jenkins can be heard repeatedly yelling “leave me alone” and “get off me”.

A female voice, the teenage defendant, shouts “Money” and “Now”, before homophobic slurs are used by one of the male defendants, believed to be Edwards, who has a Liverpool accent.

Dr Jenkins makes repeated pleas for his life, asking “Why” and “Please, stop it”.

His moaning in pain becomes quieter before he is unable to speak any more.

The girl defendant can be heard saying “Get down”, “Do it all over again”, “Do it”, “Hit him again”.

Another male voice at one point says: “Stamp on his head. Stamp on his head too.”

Another says: “Keep going,” and “Oh, let me stamp on him again.”

One of the men said: “We’re here to rob them.”

A passer-by, Louis Williams, can be heard attempting to intervene before the three defendants turn and assault him.

Finally, the girl is heard saying: “Yeah, I needed that.”

The court then heard a 999 call made by another man, Owain Hill, who told police he had heard someone being attacked in the park by “multiple men”.

Giving evidence, Mr Hill said he heard what sounded like someone being attacked and had intended to go and break it up, but added: “The closer I got, the louder the violence was, so that I got scared and I turned around.”

Mr Hill said he first came across the three defendants before the attack, sitting on the benches outside the Summerhouse cafe.

He saw them later on that night and began a conversation with them, with the female defendant offering him a can of Strongbow.

Mr Hill said they had made him feel uncomfortable and he had walked away, but said in a statement he believed the males were either drunk or on drugs.

He described the female defendant as quite sober.

Video from the bodyworn camera of a Pc Butterfield who attended the scene then shows him approaching Dr Jenkins, who is lying bloodied on the ground.

Mr Williams, who had remained at the scene, was then seen talking in a distressed state to police officers, repeating: “What is going on?”

He adds: “I just want him to stay alive.”

Dr Jenkins, and a number of the witnesses, had frequented the park that night “looking for sexual contact with other men”, the court was told.

Mr Enoch told the jury the three defendants were looking to rob “vulnerable gay men who were in the park for sex”.

They had met that night on Queen Street before going to buy alcohol at the Esso garage on Cathedral Road and walking into the park via the Castle Street entrance.

CCTV cameras pick up their movements again after they leave the park, when Strickland went back to the garage, where he bought a bottle of whisky using Dr Jenkins’ bank card.

When he is later stopped and searched by police the red Santander card is found in his pocket.

The teenage girl and Edwards emerge from the North Road entrance and hug each other twice over a number of minutes before they separate.

Edwards is then seen meeting up with Strickland back on the benches at the corner of Queen Street, where they embrace. Both men appear to be smiling and in good spirits.

Edwards is seen playing with a mobile phone believed to be the victim’s. He is later believed to have thrown it in the back garden of a house in Canton while being chased on foot by a police officer.

All three have pleaded guilty to manslaughter, robbery and assault.

The trial continues.