WARNING, DISTRESSING CONTENT: Grindr user Josh Baxter was found guilty of intentional strangulation or suffocation, and unlawfully inflicting grievous bodily harm after Michael Barron’s death
A man who choked his Grindr date during a fatal ‘extreme’ sex session has been sentenced to prison. Josh Baxter, 28, invited Michael Barron, 38, to his flat in Blackley, north Manchester, after the pair had exchanged explicit messages on the dating app.
Baxter bound Mr Barron in his bed with rope. Prosecutors stated that Baxter strangled aspiring actor Mr Barron’s neck so forcefully that he fractured a bone and cartilage.
Mr Barron, originally from Ireland, died after suffering a cardiac arrest due to a lack of oxygen to the brain. Baxter, of Lakeside Rise, Blackley, 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, reports the Manchester Evening News.
During a sentencing hearing at Minshull Street Crown Court on Tuesday (February 24), Judge Tina Landale told Baxter he had arranged to meet Mr Baxter ‘a man [he] had never met before in order to have an extreme sexual encounter’.
The judge said she believed the defendant was ‘well aware of the dangers of choking’ and ‘decided to ignore’ warnings he had received about the practice. Judge Landale said the defendant had ‘encouraged’ his victim to become ‘extremely drunk’.
The judge also noted Baxter had confessed to a probation officer he had ‘repeatedly’ strangled Mr Barron whilst he was restrained face down with rope.
Judge Landale continued that despite the encounter being consensual, Parliament had determined such conduct was ‘inherently dangerous’ and that the ‘public must be protected from serious injury or unreasonable risk’.
She said she ‘rejected’ the defendant’s assertion that he felt remorse. “During your evidence you demonstrated no insight into your behaviour or accepted responsibility what-so-ever,” she stated, adding that the defendant had displayed a ‘poor understanding of consent and a limited insight into the risk of harm’.
He remained expressionless as he was sentenced to four years behind bars.
Following their encounter at Baxter’s flat in Blackley, Baxter placed a Deliveroo order, contacted several other men on Grindr and conducted a Google search: “If you accidentally kill someone by strangling them in sex do you go to prison.”
Anne Whyte KC, prosecuting, told the court Baxter had ‘quite specific sexual interests’, which he revealed to Mr Barron in a Grindr message after they matched.
In the communication, Baxter expressed he enjoyed it ‘rough’ and enquired whether Mr Barron would allow him to ‘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 enquired if Mr Barron would ‘do rape role play’.
“In other words, Josh Baxter was sexually motivated by high-risk sexual activity,” stated Ms Whyte KC. The messages between Baxter and Mr Barron revealed their sexual preferences, with Mr Barron expressing his interest in being ‘tied, gagged, hooded, totally helpless’ and his affinity for ‘pain and torture’.
Ms Whyte elaborated: “We can see Mr Baxter telling Mr Barron that when he got to Mr Baxter’s flat, Mr Barron would start drinking vodka until he was so drunk he could barely walk. Mr Baxter said he would then strip him and start raping and abusing him. Mr Barron consented to that and said Mr Baxter could force feed him vodka as well.”
Baxter reported that Mr Barron arrived at his flat at 4.27pm. They engaged in casual conversation about ‘general things’, including their favourite films.
The discussion then shifted towards sex and their respective ‘limits’. Baxter claimed Mr Barron expressed that he did not want a ‘safe word’.
Prosecutors argued that whilst Mr Barron was consenting to certain acts, it provided ‘no defence’ if Baxter anticipated the risk that his actions could affect Mr Barron’s breathing and potentially cause serious harm.
“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,” Ms Whyte KC concluded.
In her final address, Louise Sweet KC, representing Baxter, stated: “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.”
After Mr Barron arrived at the flat, both men were found to have attempted to obtain some Ketamine, before later heading to a shop to purchase more alcohol. The last activity on Mr Barron’s phone was at 5.45pm when a brief call was made to a drug dealer, it was reported.
Between 7pm and 7.56pm, Baxter also ceased using his phone, and prosecutors suggested it can be ‘reasonably inferred’ that they engaged in sexual activity during this period. The court heard that Baxter restrained Mr Barron face-down on his bed and lay on top of him for an ‘extended period’.
Ms Whyte said: “He was choked at some stage, it would appear as though he was restrained by his wrists and ankles face down throughout the sexual activity. We know from the police search at the scene that the sex involved the use of a makeshift mask on Mr Barron.”
At 7.56pm, Baxter messaged other Grindr users whilst Mr Barron remained restrained, lying on the bed.
Baxter claimed he noticed Mr Barron’s face was purple, but that he could hear snoring so believed that Mr Barron was not ‘in trouble medically’. Around 9pm, Baxter ordered two chicken burgers, chips and onion rings via Deliveroo.
After collecting the food from downstairs, Baxter claimed Mr Barron’s face had turned ‘deep purple’ and that he could no longer detect any snoring. He conducted online searches, including ‘purple face whilst sleeping’; ‘how to tell if someone is alive’; and ‘how to tell if someone is breathing’.
He dialled 999 and was guided to perform CPR on Mr Barron. In the early hours of January 27, he searched on Google ‘is it illegal to f*** someone in their sleep even in you have their concent [sic]’; and ‘if you accidentally kill someone by strangling them during sex do you go to prison’.
Taking the stand, Baxter insisted the messages were ‘fantasy’ and that he never meant to harm Mr Barron. When questioned about choking, he stated: “I never saw it as a dangerous activity.”
He insisted the injury had occurred accidentally. Discussing the internet searches conducted by Baxter, Ms Sweet said he was experiencing ‘real trauma’. “There is no normal reaction, only shock, disbelief, anxiety, numbness, fear,” she explained.
“He was scared about what people would think of what he and Mr Barron had been doing.”
She revealed his flatmate had described him as ‘shy’ and a ‘bit of a geek’. “He loves gaming, he goes out with his mum, he goes to bingo with his mum,” she noted.
“Nobody has a bad word to say about him.”