R v Gregor Bauld

Facts

The applicant, Gregor Bauld, was the only child of Christine Bauld and her husband Thomas, living in Burbage near Hinkley. Well brought up in a comfortable home, his life had become blighted from the age of 13 or 14 by chronic drug abuse and associated mental ill-health, and he had been detained under the Mental Health Act 1983 in 2022 after an incident believed to involve drug-induced psychosis. Over the weekend of 1 to 3 March 2024 his father twice confiscated drugs from him. Following a confrontation on the Sunday morning, the applicant armed himself with a kitchen knife with a 12 inch blade, chased his mother out of the house and stabbed her; the fatal wound to the back penetrated the aorta. He told police his mother was a paedophile and that "that's justice". Blood and urine samples disclosed LSD, ketamine, cannabis and a sedative. On the first day of his trial for murder at the Crown Court at Leicester he pleaded guilty to manslaughter by diminished responsibility; the plea was not acceptable to the prosecution, but on 18 October 2024 the jury acquitted him of murder and convicted him of manslaughter. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a hybrid order, and renewed his application for leave to appeal after refusal by the single judge.