South Normanton drug addict guilty of manslaughter

The dad-of-one died after being stabbed through the heart in South Normanton last summer.

Leon Lockhart, of Carter Lane East, South Normanton, was cleared of murder but found guilty of manslaughter at Nottingham Crown Court this morning.

The court heard how Lockhart, 32, and his then-girlfriend Michaela Griffiths bumped into Mr Baker “by chance” on a bus on Thursday, July 18.

The three spent the day together taking drugs and Mr Baker slept on the pair’s settee.

The following day, they took about ten grams of MCAT between them.

Lockhart told jurors he asked Mr Baker to leave him and Griffiths alone that night – then stabbed the 32-year-old in self-defence after he pointed a knife at him.

However, the prosecution said it was “paranoid” Lockhart who pulled the blade on Mr Baker before “plunging” it into his chest, causing a 15cm-deep wound.

Lockhart told the court he started taking drugs at the age of 12 because he “wanted to rebel”.

The dad-of-two – who denied murder – had abused cannabis, LSD, ecstasy, cocaine and heroin and said he injected MCAT in toilets, phone boxes, at the back of buses and even in local parks.