Michael Causer's family pay tribute to "the life and soul of the party"

Aug 5 2008

Flowers at the corner of Huyton Brook and Tarbock Road in Huyton for Michael Causer who died after his attack _320

The family of a Liverpool teenager who was killed in an alleged homophobic attack have paid tribute to a boy who was "the life and soul of the party".

Michael "Mickey" Causer, 18, was attacked on Tarbock Road in Huyton on Friday July 25. He clung to life for a week until Saturday when he died in Whiston Hospital in Merseyside.

A statement issued by his family read: "Mickey was very close to all members of his family and will be greatly missed by his mum and dad, brothers and sisters, aunties and uncles, cousins, nephews and nieces, and his grandparents.

"Mickey loved life and had many friends. He was popular and well-liked. Mickey was the life and soul of the party, a happy, and outgoing 18-year-old man. Mickey was definitely a ’people’s person’. Our world will never been the same without him."

Mr Causer, who was openly gay, was found by paramedics lying in a pool of blood. Doctors at Liverpool’s Walton Neurology Centre performed emergency surgery in an attempt to stem the swelling on his brain. His distraught family kept a bedside vigil.

The killing, which detectives described as a "homophobic hate crime", has led Liverpool’s gay community to plan a protest march through the city.

Two men have appeared in court charged with grievous bodily harm and a third has been charged with witness intimidation.

James O’Connor, 19, of Reeds Road, and Gavin Alker, also 19, of Woolfall Crescent, both Huyton, have appeared in court and been bailed on charges of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

The third man, Christopher Douglas, 19, of Page Moss Avenue, Huyton, appeared before magistrates charged with witness intimidation.

It is thought some of the charges, which were laid before Mr Causer’s death, could be upgraded.