Josh Baxter, 28, invited Michael Barron, 38, to his flat in Manchester after the pair had exchanged explicit messages on the dating app
A man who invited his Grindr date to his flat then strangled him during a fatal “extreme” sex session has been jailed. The victim Michael Barron had appeared in popular soap operas, Hollyoaks and Emmerdale before his death.
Josh Baxter, 28, invited Michael Barron, 38, to his apartment after the pair had sent explicit messages to each other on the dating app.
A jury found Baxter not guilty of manslaughter, but guilty of intentional strangulation or suffocation, and unlawfully inflicting grievous bodily harm which he denies.
Baxter tied Michael up with rope and suffocated him for at least 30 minutes. Don’t miss a court report by signing up to our crime newsletter here
Michael’s mother paid tribute to him, describing her only child as her “best friend”, saying how he was “kind, compassionate and very unique” and had “brightened up my world as soon as he entered it.”
Josh Baxter has been found not guilty of manslaughter after the death of Michael Barron (pictured)(Image: Supplied)
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 the dangers, the court heard.
After they had sex at Baxter’s, 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. He carried out online searches, including “purple face while sleeping”; “how to tell if someone is alive” and “how to tell if someone is breathing”.
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.”
