A 28-year-old British man has dodged a murder charge because he was out of his mind on drugs and did not know what he was doing.
However, Jake Notman, 28, who stabbed his girlfriend more than 30 times and then ran her over with his car, admitted to manslaughter in the death of Lauren Bloomer, 25, according to Birmingham Live.
The court accepted the argument from Notman’s defense team that after eating a cannabis brownie, Notman was having a “psychotic episode” in which he did not know “what was real and what was not” and had “totally lost touch with reality.”
The tragedy began as the two celebrated the release of the PlayStation 5 gaming console in November 2020 by having cannabis brownies, which the British refer to as “space cakes.”
Jake Notman, 27, stabbed, strangled & ran over Lauren Bloomer after ‘eating a cannabis brownie’ at their home in Tamworth Nov 20 last year. *He has been cleared of murder*. The Weed Made Me Do It Defence. https://t.co/4Jq48rafPl
— Joolz Denby (@JoolzDenby) November 25, 2021
Bloomer was beaten, strangled, stabbed more than 30 times and run over.
“Lauren Bloomer was in a relationship with this defendant. He was high on cannabis, having ingested a cannabis brownie. Tragically, it looked like something out of the movie ‘Scream,” said prosecutor Deborah Gould.
Bloomer had made a call during the attack, which recorded much of her death
“Lauren activated her telephone, she was not to know she was about to record her murder,” Gould said.
The recording included Notman screaming his intent to kill Bloomer.
🔴 A man who ran over and stabbed his girlfriend 30 times after eating a "space cake" has been cleared of murder.
Cannabis user Jake Notman, attacked his partner during a psychotic episode in Tamworth, Staffordshire https://t.co/5SOfbTuQkv
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) November 24, 2021
Andrew Fisher, defending Notman, said, “They had a celebration and decided to partake with weed brownies. Neither really drunk alcohol or smoked. Tragically, it all went horrendously wrong.”
Fisher said Notman asked Bloomer “to kill him repeatedly before he so terribly killed her in the most horrendous way imaginable. Jake Notman suffered from an extra florid psychotic episode.”
Notman was sentenced to eight years and eight months for the manslaughter conviction, according to the Evening Standard.
The judge said Notman had killed Bloomer in “the most unexpected and frightful way.”
A cannabis user who stabbed, strangled and ran over his partner during a psychotic episode has been cleared of murder after admitting manslaughter.
Jake Notman inflicted more than 30 stab wounds on 25-year-old university student Lauren Bloomer.https://t.co/u3GNVjb6XJ
— Express & Star (@ExpressandStar) November 24, 2021
“I am quite sure that the psychotic state which Jake Notman was in was at least in part a response to the cannabis which he had taken,” she said.
“There is an obvious lesson … that cannabis can be very dangerous. It is an illegal drug for good reason,” she said.
In her sentencing, she said she accepted that Notman, who has no prior record, had shown remorse.