A 28-year-old man has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter after a 38-year-old man was allegedly strangled to death during a sexual encounter arranged on the dating app Grindr.
Deadly Encounter After App Meeting
Michael Barron, 38, met Josh Baxter, 28, on Grindr in January 2025. After exchanging explicit messages discussing their sexual preferences, they arranged to meet at Baxter's flat in Blackley later that same day, Minshull Street Crown Court heard.
Prosecutor Anna Whyte KC told jurors that their online conversation revealed Baxter had "quite specific sexual interests." He reportedly asked Barron if he would let him engage in acts including choking, tying him up, pulling his hair, and getting him "so drunk he was weak and defenceless." The pair also discussed rape role-play, the court was told.
Barron, the court heard, consented to the proposed activities, messaging that he liked to be "tied, gagged, hooded, totally helpless" as well as 'pain and torture'.
Alleged Sequence of Events Leading to Death
The prosecution outlined a harrowing sequence of events on January 26, 2025. After Barron arrived at the flat, the pair attempted to source drugs and bought more alcohol. Jurors heard that the sexual activity is believed to have occurred between 7pm and 7.56pm.
Ms Whyte KC alleged that Baxter encouraged Barron to drink a significant amount of alcohol, rendering him unconscious. Baxter then restrained Barron face-down on the bed, lying on top of him for a prolonged period and, at some stage, strangling and choking him with such force that it fractured a bone and cartilage in his neck.
This allegedly caused cerebral hypoxia – a lack of oxygen to the brain – which led to a cardiac arrest. Michael Barron died as a result.
Searches and Actions After the Incident
Prosecutors allege that after the incident, while Barron was still restrained on the bed, Baxter did not immediately seek help. Instead, he is said to have messaged other men on Grindr and ordered a takeaway on Deliveroo.
He later performed internet searches including "purple face while sleeping", "how to tell if someone is alive", and "if you accidentally kill someone by strangling them in sex do you go to prison".
Baxter eventually called 999 and was instructed on how to perform CPR. He later told paramedics he had left to get food and returned to find Barron's face was purple. The prosecution asserts this showed "at best an indifference to Michael Barron's welfare."
Concluding her opening, Ms Whyte KC said: "Michael Barron's death was not an accident. It was, given Josh Baxter's recklessness and untrammelled quest for sexual gratification, a death that was waiting to happen."
Josh Baxter, of Lakeside Rise, Blackley, denies charges of manslaughter, intentional strangulation or suffocation, and unlawfully inflicting grievous bodily harm. The trial continues and is expected to last up to two weeks.
