Fridae

Five youths including a 14-year-old girl have been charged with the murder of 37-year-old David Morley. He died after being savagely beaten at London's South Bank in the early hours of 30 October.

A post-mortem examination revealed that the London barman, a survivor of the 1999 Soho nail bombing, suffered a ruptured spleen, broken ribs and more than 40 distinct bruises to his head and body.

Morley was working as a barman at the Admiral Duncan pub in 1999 when nail bomber David Copeland killed three people and injured 73.

According to British news reports, the 14-year-old accused girl from South Norwood, London, is due to appear before Camberwell Green magistrates later on Wednesday. She also faces charges of attempted grievous bodily harm (GBH) on two other men, robbery, violent disorder and conspiracy to commit robbery.

A 17-year-old male, from Kennington, south London, appeared before Camberwell Green magistrates on Tuesday. He also faces charges of violent disorder, attempted GBH, robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery.

On Monday, Barry Lee, 19, a market trader from Fitzalan Street, Kennington, and two other unnamed 16-year-old boys were remanded by the same court.

The four who were remanded in custody are due to appear at the Old Bailey on 15 November.

On Saturday, 30 October, Morley, was sitting with a friend on a bench near Hungerford Bridge when they were assaulted by a gang of five or six people in a violent attack at around 3.30am. He was rushed to St Thomas's Hospital where he died of multiple injuries hours later while his 29-year-old friend also needed treatment for minor injuries.

The fatal attack followed two other assaults on the South Bank in the space of 15 minutes. Shortly after 3.15am, a 35-year-old man sitting on a bench in Jubilee Gardens was hit over the head with an object. Three people were attacked while sitting on a bench on the other side of Hungerford Bridge, near the British Airways London Eye at around 3.25am.

Last Friday, more than a thousand people filled the streets of Soho and central London in a candlelit vigil that began outside the Admiral Duncan pub, the scene of 1999's nail bomb attack that Morley survived to the South Bank spot where he was killed. Mayor Ken Livingstone and the country's leading equality groups attended a brief service held in Soho's St Anne's gardens.

Detective Chief Inspector Nick Scola, from the specialist crime directorate, said: "While clearly robbery is a motive - as some property was taken - the fact remains that victims from two of the three incidents are gay. While I cannot be certain that the victims were targeted because they are gay, until I know otherwise I am treating the attacks as homophobic hate crimes."