A man accused of murdering his girlfriend was recorded on a mobile phone as he repeatedly stabbed, strangled, and ran over her during a psychotic episode after eating a cannabis brownie, a court has been told.
University student Lauren Bloomer, who was stabbed more than 30 times, “recorded her own murder” after seeking advice on the internet about the “bad weed trip” suffered by Jake Notman, Stafford Crown Court heard.
Notman, 27, denies murdering 25-year-old Miss Bloomer at their home in Bingley Avenue, Tamworth, in the early hours of 20 November last year, claiming he did not form the necessary intent due to his mental state.
Opening the case, prosecutor Deborah Gould told jurors that Miss Bloomer had activated her telephone to record what was happening “like something out of the movie Scream”.
Describing what could be seen or heard on the near-17-minute recording, Ms Gould told the court: “The audio captured the moments leading up to, including and after the murder.
“It shows the defendant as he began to attack Lauren Bloomer, at first with his bare hands.
“At the start of the recording you will hear her laughing and the defendant accusing her of laughing at him.”
The jury was told that Notman became aggressive nine minutes into the recording, around a minute before Lauren is heard saying ‘please help me’ to his aunt in a call on a second phone.
The Crown’s barrister added: “You may think when you hear the sounds that the defendant is downstairs, the phone remaining upstairs.
“At 10 minutes and 49 seconds in the recording, Lauren stops screaming. The defendant is then heard shouting ‘I will never f****** see you again’.”
Notman, the court was told, was then heard saying “I am going to make sure”, before the sound of a revving engine is heard.
A thud was then recorded by the victim’s phone, which the Crown says was the sound of Notman’s Ford Kuga being driven over Miss Bloomer.
The defendant, who worked for Jaguar Land Rover at its Solihull site, was seen by neighbours as he ran over his partner’s body, and took no steps to help her before heading back into their house, it is alleged.
He is then said to have dialled 999 at 1.32am, telling the operator he had “been told I have killed my girlfriend”.
Notman had made no comment in five police interviews, instead providing a statement suggesting the cannabis brownie – the first he had ever consumed – had something in it other than cannabis, Ms Gould said.
Telling the court three psychiatrists had assessed Notman’s “disordered” behaviour, Ms Gould said it was believed he had suffered an adverse reaction.
But she told the jury: “It does not provide a defence in law.”
“A disordered intention caused by self-induced ingestion of an intoxicant is as good as a sober intention.
“You can infer that the defendant intended to kill Lauren or cause her really serious injury from the fact that he beat her, tried to strangle her… and sought out a knife and used it to attack Lauren for a second time.
“You can infer it from what he said before he drove the car over her.”
The psychiatrists in the case agree Notman was experiencing a psychotic episode, the jury heard.
Defence barrister Andrew Fisher QC also made a brief address to the jury at the start of the trial, saying Notman had suffered an “extreme florid psychiatric episode in the course of which he totally lost touch with reality and became wholly delusional”.
The trial continues.