Former Mr. Gay UK Guilty of Murder & Cannibalism
Anthony Morley, a former TV personality murders and eats his boyfriend. But why?
In Leeds West Yorkshire in the North of England, former Mr. Gay UK winner and ‘Gods gift’ contestant Anthony Morley murdered his ex-boyfriend. There is still widespread speculation surrounding why this occurred and no key explanation has been given to this day. There is very limited coverage on this case which is mind-blowing considering you would expect cases of this kind to feature in a drama series or crime documentary.
Background:
Anthony Morley in 1972 in Yorkshire, England. He had a relatively normal childhood, there were no major incidents or influential people in his life that shaped the way he grew up. All through his teenage years into early adulthood he attracted a lot of attention from his peers who found him charming. When he was in his late teens he realised that he could utilise this and he began modelling. He started quite small and then worked his way up to bigger campaigns and magazines.
During this time Anthony began figuring out his sexuality. He always felt that he was attracted to men but he was trying to work out whether it was just men he liked or both men and women. He referred to himself as gay frequently but when people would try to talk to him about it he denied it. Also, he never referred to himself as bisexual, pansexual or any label in the middle only gay or straight. Although some people shun away from putting a label on their sexuality it is apparent Anthony wanted to find a label that fit him.
TV and Mr. Gay UK:
Whilst his modelling career was taking off, Anthony began branching out into different things like pageants and contests. He was particularly interested in entertainment TV shows that were focused on looks and scouting attractive people. His ultimate dream was to become a dancer but he made no active steps to do so; like going to dance classes or looking for dance jobs. Once he was engulfed in the modelling and entertainment industry his dancing dream took a backseat.
In 1993, 21-year-old Anthony Morley entered the first-ever Mr. Gay UK contest. This is an annual beauty contest for gay men held in the UK with regional heats across the country. Think of it as a mixture of a beauty contest and a talent show with the main message being pride and community. Men would apply from all across the UK. The first step is competing in mini-contests in local pubs and clubs in which a winner would be found in each city. All of the winners would then meet up in London at a famous gay club and compete for the ultimate title of Mr. Gay UK. The grand prize for winning was £1000 and a holiday to Gran Canaria.
Anthony went to his local gay club in Doncaster, South Yorkshire and signed up. He won the mini-competition and then travelled to London to compete against the other 13 winners from around the UK. He won the grand prize and became the first-ever Mr. Gay UK and was truly over the moon.
Winning the title opened the floodgates for numerous opportunities all across Europe. Anthony was in pride parades across the UK and Europe, he got numerous modelling jobs and parts in game shows on TV. He wanted to make the most of these offers and create a lasting career for himself. So, he moved from Yorkshire to London and became a full-time entertainer and model.
In 1996 a British game show called ‘God’s Gift’ hit screens at 3:00 am on Thursday and Saturday nights. It was hosted by Davina Mccall and voiced over by Jimmy Saville. Although it was on quite late in the night, well early hours in the morning, it was surprisingly popular. Since most people were coming back home from nights out they would sit drunk in the living room with a takeaway making fun of this show. Nobody took God’s Gift seriously it was just something light-hearted to watch, so it makes sense why it was cancelled after two years.
All contestants on the show were men, who claimed they were ‘God’s gift’. They believed they had it all, the basis of the show was all about vanity and battling it out to see who is the best. They would perform stripteases, complete random challenges and show off skills to try to win over the live studio audience. In the end, the audience would vote for who was the sexiest and they would win. Usually, the audience was mainly women but occasionally they would have episodes where the contestants and audience were gay men. The winner would then find the audience member they thought was the sexiest and take them out on a date.
Anthony Morley landed a role on the show as one of the five contestants. In his episode, he also won and was crowned ‘God’s gift’ by the audience and he picked a man for his date. Significantly, Anthony’s future boyfriend and victim, 21-year-old Damian Oldfield was a member of the interactive audience that day. A very chilling coincidence. Later on that year Damian also appeared on the show as a contestant and won his episode too. You can see a clip from this episode here to get the gist of what the show was like:
Life After Fame:
Some time had passed. Anthony was now reaching his late 20’s and modelling job opportunities were rapidly declining. For this reason, Anthony could no longer afford to live in London, as it is extremely expensive to live in the capital, so he decided to move back to Leeds his hometown. Meanwhile, Damian also lived in Leeds working for gay lifestyle magazine ‘Bent’ as an advertising manager. The magazine company also owned the nightclub in Leeds that hosted the Mr. Gay UK night, another huge coincidence, and was very well known. Due to the nature of his work Damian was extremely friendly and outgoing as he often had to advertise the nightclub so he became a familiar welcoming face.
In the meantime, Anthony had taken a step back from the entertainment industry and decided to go into cooking. He started quite low in the kitchen completing the smaller jobs but eventually, he became a chef specialising in seafood.
Both Anthony and Damian regularly attended the gay nightclubs and gay events in the Leeds area during the early 2000s so naturally, the two met. They began to form a relationship and started seeing each other exclusively for a short while but they then broke it off. Owning to the fact that Anthony had severe commitment issues and confusion surrounding his sexuality. He would get into relationships with women and then get the feeling he did not like women he liked men. Then get into a relationship with a man and the cycle would repeat.
It is evident he had a difficult time communicating how he felt. Although there is no need for him to label himself he truly felt like he needed to which caused extreme inner turmoil. To friends around him, he expressed an extreme desire that he longed to ‘just feel normal’. When people asked about Mr. Gay UK and his relationships with men he stated he liked women and he just did it for the prize money. In the same way, when people asked if he was straight he would also deny it.
Now in his early 30’s Anthony became agitated and frustrated with himself that he needed to let the life he once had go. His dream career of becoming a dancer became just that. A dream. He realised he was no longer in his prime, he had wasted his younger years so he turned to alcohol. When he had a drink he was known for becoming aggressive and violent.
After an argument with a former boyfriend about money, something that many couples argue about, there was an incident. After arguing they both sat silently watching TV. His boyfriend believed the argument was over until Anthony got up walked to the kitchen and then sat back down with his hand behind his back. Anthony sat there for another five minutes before he stood up with a meat cleaver in hand and made his way toward his boyfriend. As he was drunk he fell, so his boyfriend was able to run outside to safety.
In fear, Anthony might have hurt himself his boyfriend called an ambulance and police. When the police arrived he began shouting and threatening ambulance staff with an air rifle from the upstairs window. In another incident, Anthony was drunk at a bar and began threatening a man, grabbing the neck of his jumper screaming that he could kill him with his bare hands. He was notoriously a bad drunk in the Leeds gay scene, anyone who went to those clubs or nights out knew to stay clear of him.
Rekindling Relationship leads to Murder:
On April 23rd, 2008 Anthony and Damian reconnected. They had been texting and Anthony invited Damian over for a few drinks and a nice meal on one condition, that they take it slow. He expressed his concerns regarding his sexuality and did not want to be rushed into anything. Damian said that was fine and they agreed to see each other. Later that night at 2:30, a local takeaway had the shock of their lives when a man stumbled through the door wearing a white robe and flip glops completely covered in blood. This was Anthony Morley.
He instructed the man behind the counter to call the police saying
“I’ve killed someone, call the police, someone tried to rape me, so I killed that person”
When police arrived at the scene they immediately arrested him at the scene and took him to the station. Whilst the other officers went inside the flat, nothing could have prepared them for what they were about to see. The flat was completely covered in blood. 33-year-old Damian was lying on the bedroom floor in a terrible physical state. There were bones, flesh and muscle everywhere. The skin and flesh had been hacked away but all his limbs were still attached to his body.
Crime scene investigators were called to look at the entirety of the flat. Damian’s body was taken for an autopsy which found he was attacked from behind and was not aware that he was about to be attacked. First, his throat was slit, cutting his jugular vein killing him. But Anthony did not stop there. Damian had been stabbed more than 30 times, in the chest, back, thigh and neck. He was missing a large chunk of flesh from his thigh 30cm x 15cm which was cut very messily. On his chest, a similar-sized cut had been made. Anthony had placed a credit card over where Damian’s nipple would have been. Police are unsure about the reason for this but it is believed there is some symbolism behind this.
Professionals have made it clear there were no signs of struggle which aligns with the autopsy that Damian was attacked from behind but it does contradict Anthony Morley’s claim that he was raped. From an objective standpoint, there is no evidence sexual activity took place, supposedly Damian had attempted to perform oral sex on Anthony and it is difficult to dispute his claim as oral sex is hard to determine compared to penetrative sex.
In the kitchen, CSI found a half-cooked/half-eaten meal on the side and a chopping board with seven half-cooked chunks of meat. You are probably thinking the same as CSI investigators were at the time. A body has been found with chunks of flesh missing, and in the kitchen at the crime scene, there are chunks of raw meat cut up so the likelihood this was from Damian’s body was extremely high. These chunks were sent off for testing and the results came back as positive for human flesh.
The flesh was from Damian’s thigh. Not only had Anthony cooked the flesh but he had seasoned it. He cut up fresh herbs, cut them up, put them in a pan with olive oil and cooked the human meat as if it was an ordinary meal. The chunks on the chopping board were still raw on one side so it was suggested the flesh was all put in whole and then once he realised it was not cooking through he cooked each piece individually. Anthony had no pets so the only explanation was that he ate it.
Another smaller chunk was found in the rubbish bin suggesting Anthony had tried some of the human flesh, did not like the taste and spat it out. Notably, police claimed when they entered the flat they had noticed a smell that was not necessarily a ‘bad smell’ but had a likeness to someone cooking pork. There was a meat cleaver on the kitchen side, there was not much blood on it so it could not be the murder weapon. There was mainly grease found mixed with the small specs of blood which led police to conclude it was used to cut the meat when it was taken out of the pan.
To this day Anthony claims he does not remember killing Damian but alleges he had woken from this state covered in blood and went to the takeaway to call the police. As the only eye-witness claims they do not remember, police have to theorise what had happened. They used the text messages and the contents of Damian’s stomach to determine what had happened.
Police’s Theory and Sentencing:
After the text communication confirming the plans for the night, the two met and shared a meal of fish which is what Anthony specialised in at the restaurant. They had a few drinks and went up to Anthony’s bedroom where they cuddled and watched Brokeback Mountain. Bear in mind they were both drunk and from past experiences, it is evident he a violent drunk. Anthony claims he fell asleep and woke up to Damian attempting to perform a sex act on him, he described waking up and feeling betrayed. This is someone he had confided in regards to his confusion towards his sexuality and this man had taken advantage of him. He says:
“I felt numb and out of control. I felt uncomfortable and betrayed”.
Anthony then flew into a blind rage, snaps out of it and saw himself covered in blood with Damian dead, cooked and eaten. He stumbled to the closest takeaway, as it was the only thing open at 2:30 am. He claims he was in an auto-pilot state because he was a chef and what do chefs do when they are confronted with a carcass they cut it up and cook it.
Police have doubted Anthony was acting during a psychotic episode and believe he was completely aware at the time. If the sexual assault story is true some professionals claim this could have triggered a PTSD response as he was assaulted when he was a teenager. The memory of the attack could have caused a disassociative state to occur. During the trial, a psychiatrist claimed there were no signs of mental illness and during their interview, Anthony never mentioned having flashbacks or experiencing PTSD. The psychiatrist did not believe he disassociated as the only thing he experienced was extremely convenient memory loss.
If the sexual assault story is true why was there a knife on the bedside table ready for Anthony to defend himself with? It does appear pre-mediated, kind of like a fantasy.
On October 17th, 2008 all this information was put before a jury who only took two hours to decide that he was guilty of Murder Cannibalism. He was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 30 years. The aftermath showed a depraved mind if you are killing someone in self-defence you do not cook them and eat them. He is currently still serving time in Leeds prison where he works as a chef.