* Warning: Distressing content * Josh Baxter, 28, invited budding actor, Michael Barron, 38, to his flat in Manchester after the pair had exchanged explicit messages on dating app, Grindr
A man who has been jailed following the heartbreaking death of Michael Barron made a haunting Google search minutes after the tragedy. Josh Baxter, 28, invited Michael, 38, who had appeared in Emmerdale and Hollyoaks, to his flat in Manchester after the pair had exchanged explicit messages on dating app, Grindr.
Tragically, Michael died after an ‘extreme’ sex session with Baxter after being tied up with rope by the 28-year-old and suffocated for at least half an hour. 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.
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Baxter, from Manchester, who was jailed for four years today, searched for something specifically online after the couple had sex. As well as ordering a takeaway on Deliveroo – while messaging several other men on Grindr – he searched on Google: “If you accidentally kill someone by strangling them in sex do you go to prison?”
After he collected his dinner from downstairs, Baxter said Michael’s face had turned ‘deep purple’ and that he could no longer hear any snoring. He carried out various online searches, including ‘purple face while sleeping’; ‘how to tell if someone is alive’; and ‘how to tell if someone is breathing’.
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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.”
Anne Whyte KC, prosecuting, told the trial Baxter had ‘quite specific sexual interests’, which he told Michael about in a message on Grindr after they connected.
In the message, Baxter said he liked it ‘rough’ and asked if Michael would let him ‘choke him, tie him up, pull his hair, spit on him, call him names, get him so drunk he was weak and defenceless and punch him’. He also asked if Michael would ‘do rape role play’.
Michael’s grieving mother paid tribute to her budding actor son, she described as her “best friend”. Mary Power tearfully described her son as ‘my best friend’ as well as ‘kind, compassionate and very unique’. Her powerful speech came moments before the jailing of a man who had invited her son to his flat to get drunk before engaging in sex so rough it resulted a in bone breaking in his neck.
The 38-year-old died after suffering a cardiac arrest following a lack of oxygen to the brain. 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.
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