A man who strangled his Grindr date during a fatal ‘extreme’ sex session has been jailed. The victim Michael Barron had had guest roles in both Hollyoaks and Emmerdale before his death.
Josh Baxter, 28, invited Michael Barron, 38, to his flat after the pair had exchanged explicit messages on the dating app. Baxter denied manslaughter, intentional strangulation or suffocation, and unlawfully inflicting grievous bodily harm during a trial last month.
A jury found him not guilty of manslaughter, but guilty of intentional strangulation or suffocation, and unlawfully inflicting grievous bodily harm. Baxter tied Michael up with rope and suffocated him for at least half an hour.
Michael’s mother paid tribute to him, describing her only child as her “best friend”. She said how he was “kind, compassionate and very unique” and had “brightened up my world as soon as he entered it”.
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Paying tribute, Mary said: “A part of me died. Nothing can prepare you for the loss of a child. A part of me died, a part of me I will never get back. I will never stop loving him. I will never stop missing him.”
Giving his evidence, Baxter said he had accidentally inflicted the neck injury and the pair had engaged in “consensual acts”. He said: “I never saw it as a dangerous activity. I have never hurt someone before, doing choking.”
A month before Michael’s death, Baxter had been warned by someone else about the dangers of choking. A web search was then carried out, which confirmed any dangers, the court heard.
After they had sex at Baxter’s flat in, Baxter ordered two chicken burgers, fries and onion rings and messaged several other men on Grindr. He also searched on Google: “If you accidentally kill someone by strangling them in sex do you go to prison.”
After he collected the food from downstairs, Baxter said Alex’s face had turned ‘deep purple’ and that he could no longer hear any snoring.
Giving her sentence, Judge Tina Landale said: “You decided to ignore those warnings and during your trial in evidence you told the jury you still did not consider choking to be dangerous. You encouraged Mr Barron to become extremely drunk. During sexual activity you choked Mr Barron so hard it fractured a bone and cartilage in his neck. You were reckless in doing so.”
During the trial, prosecutor Anne Whyte KC said that Baxter had “quite specific sexual interests”. Baxter and Michael had spoken about these on the app and they had also discussed what they liked and disliked sexually.
Baxter said Mr Barron arrived at his flat at 4.27pm, where they chatted about ‘general things’, including their favourite films. The pair then began talking about sex and what their ‘limits’ were. Baxter claimed Mr Barron said he did not want a ‘safe word’.
Prosecutors said while Mr Barron was consenting to certain acts, it was ‘no defence’ if Baxter foresaw the risk. Ms Whyte KC said: “We suggest he foresaw the risk, and unreasonably took it precisely because the risks and control involved were part of the very specific sexual activity that he wanted to engage in.”
In her own closing speech, Louise Sweet KC, Baxter’s barrister, said: “He [Mr Baxter] says if there is any possibility that he contributed to Mr Barron’s death, it was not intended by him, and never did he imagine in a million years that he would come to harm, and therefore it was not reckless.”
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