A Jaguar Land Rover employee who stabbed, strangled and run over his girlfriend during a psychotic episode has been acquitted after admitting to the manslaughter of the murder.
College student Lauren Bloomer suffered more than 30 stab wounds in the Jake Notman attack after eating a cannabis brownie at her home on Bingley Avenue, Tamworth, Staffordshire on November 20 last year, WalesOnline reports.
The 27-year-old, who worked at the Solihull Auto Plant, pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the sixth day of his trial today (Wednesday, November 24) after prosecutors decided not to add any further evidence of a murder charge.
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The Stafford Crown Court trial heard that Miss Bloomer recorded “her own murder” on a cell phone after consulting the Internet about Notman’s “bad cannabis trip”.
During the opening of the trial last week, prosecutor Deborah Gould told jury that Miss Bloomer had started recording what was happening “like something from the movie Scream”.
Ms. Gould told the court: “It shows the defendant as he started attacking Lauren Bloomer, initially with his bare hands.
“She was just trying to take care of him in this cannabis messy state.
“At the beginning of the recording you can hear her laughing and the defendant accuses her of laughing at him.”
(Image: PA)
The judges heard that Notman began to be aggressive about nine minutes after the 17-minute recording, and a minute later, Miss Bloomer can be heard saying “Please help me” on a second phone call to Notman’s aunt his aunt says.
Ms. Gould added, “Something without a doubt about the defendant’s behavior caused Lauren to begin recording on this cell phone.
“The audio picked up Lauren’s screams and it recorded her cries for help.”
The recording heard Notman say, “I’m going to make sure,” before the sound of an engine revving up and running over Miss Bloomer in his Ford Kuga.
The defendant was seen by neighbors running over his partner’s body and taking no steps to help her before going back inside.
He dialed 999 at 1:32 a.m. and said he had been told I killed my girlfriend.
Over the course of five police interrogations, Notman made no comment and instead made a statement that the cannabis brownie, the first he had ever eaten, contained anything other than cannabis.
At the beginning of the trial, the defense attorney said that Notman had “suffered an extremely florid psychiatric episode in the course of which he became completely disconnected from reality and became completely delusional”.
Explaining the decision not to provide evidence of the murder allegation, prosecutor Ben Douglas-Jones WC said: “All three experts agree that the psychiatric response of the accused to cannabis based on the evidence, including the recordings, is so profound that he is.” couldn’t see what was real and what wasn’t.
“In particular, he couldn’t tell whether Lauren Bloomer was alive or dead, or real or not.
“In other words, he couldn’t tell if he was with another person or not.”
“The Crown has reviewed the high-level evidence within the CPS and, after careful consideration, has come to the conclusion that it is not possible to continue the murder charges.”
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