Josh Baxter was sentenced for killing Michael Barron during a consensual but extreme sex session involving choking and binding.

Josh Baxter, 28, was sentenced to prison after being convicted of intentional strangulation and unlawfully inflicting grievous bodily harm in the death of Michael Barron, 38, during a sexual encounter at Baxter’s Manchester flat. The two men, who met on Grindr, engaged in a consensual but extreme sex session where Baxter bound Barron with rope and choked him, causing a fractured neck and fatal cardiac arrest due to oxygen deprivation. Baxter denied manslaughter and other charges, but a jury found him guilty on two counts. Judge Tina Landale stated Baxter knowingly engaged in dangerous acts, admitted to repeated choking, encouraged extreme intoxication, and lacked genuine remorse, emphasizing that even consensual high-risk sexual acts can exceed legal and ethical boundaries and pose serious public safety risks.