A Ugandan gay activist whose photo was put on the front page of a newspaper that called for his killing has been brutally beaten to death.

Ugandan police said yesterday that David Kato had been bludgeoned at his home and suffered serious head wounds.

Mr Kato had been receiving death threats since Uganda’s Rolling Stone newspaper in October listed him among 100 gay Ugandans underneath a headline that read “Hang them”.

He and two other activists sued the newspaper and won the case earlier this month.

Homosexuality is illegal in Uganda, and a lawmaker introduced a Bill in October 2009 that would impose the death penalty for some homosexual acts.

The Bill has not come up for a vote.

Meanwhile, one of those mentioned in the newspaper had been quoted as saying: “When my neighbours saw my picture in the paper, they were furious. They threw stones at me while I was in my house. I was so terrified somehow I managed to flee my home to safety.”