Man stabbed mother to death after row over drugs

Christine Bauld, 55, was pronounced dead shortly after emergency services arrived at The Coppice

A man stabbed his mother to death outside their family home following a row over drugs, a court has heard.

Gregor Bauld, 23, admitted the manslaughter of Christine Bauld in The Coppice, Burbage, Leicestershire, on 3 March.

On Wednesday, Leicester Crown Court was told a dispute over his drug use led him to arm himself with a kitchen knife and follow his mother out of the house before administering a series of blows.

Bauld denies murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

Two days before the killing, the court heard Bauld had landed a new job with a firm in Coventry.

But his family's celebrations turned sour when his parents, Tom and Christine Bauld - known as Tina - heard "howling" coming from their son's room in the early hours.

In an interview with police relayed to the trial by prosecutor Gordon Aspden KC, Mr Bauld explained his son had been found taking drugs in his room and due to his state, had to be helped into bed.

The drugs, later found to be ketamine, were cleared away by him and confiscated.

Bauld, who the court heard has used drugs since he was 13 or 14, had previously been sectioned in the past over threats to kill his mother because she was, in his words, "an alien".

'Severely traumatised'

Fearing a relapse in his behaviour, the court was told his parents confronted him, and he promised to stop his drug use.

But the following evening, Bauld spent the night at a Premier Inn hotel as his parents had guests, and the court heard CCTV showed him incapacitated while checking out, as he walked into a glass pane.

While Bauld was showering on the morning of the killing, the court heard Mr Bauld inspected his trousers and found two plastic bags containing drugs.

Mr Bauld threatened to flush the drugs, later found to be LSD, leading to a confrontation.

Mrs Bauld, 55, decided to leave the property to walk the dog, but found her son with a knife when she went to collect a lead.

She left the property but was followed and was "defenceless" when she was fatally stabbed, jurors heard.

Mr Aspden said paramedics arrived at the scene, where Mrs Bauld was in cardiac arrest and underwent emergency surgery "on the concrete" - but she was pronounced dead 37 minutes later.

He added Bauld's father, who held his wife in his arms after the attack, was "severely traumatised" and in a "state of obvious shock".

The prosecutor told the court the defendant had been "in the grip of a destructive cycle of drug abuse" leading up to the stabbing, and that blood and urine samples showed "striking" traces of drugs, including LSD and ketamine.

The trial continues.