A man who killed his girlfriend during a psychotic episode after eating a cannabis brownie has been jailed for eight years and eight months

Jake Notman stabbed, strangled and ran over 25-year-old university student Lauren Bloomer at their home in Tamworth, Staffordshire, in the early hours of November 20 last year.

The 28-year-old car factory worker denied murdering Miss Bloomer but pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter on Wednesday, mid-way through his trial at Stafford Crown Court.

Notman, of Bingley Avenue, entered his guilty plea after prosecutors accepted psychiatric evidence – including analysis of a mobile phone recording made by the victim during the killing – that he was divorced from reality and could not have formed the intent required for murder.

Passing sentence, Mrs Justice May said Notman had killed Ms Bloomer, a mature student at Nottingham University, in “the most unexpected and frightful way” during a two-and-a-half minute attack.

“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.

The trial had heard Notman claimed the brownie he had eaten prior to the attack had something in it other than cannabis which had brought on the psychotic episode.

The court had been told of the 17-minute video recorded by Ms Bloomer on her phone, after she had sought advice on the internet about the “bad weed trip” suffered by her partner.

Prosecutor Deborah Gould likened the recording to “something out of the movie Scream”.

Ms Gould detailed how the video starts in the couple’s bedroom as the defendant attacked Ms Bloomer, initially with his “bare hands”.

“She was just trying to care for him in this state of being disordered through cannabis,” the prosecutor said.

The jury heard that about nine minutes into the recording Notman became aggressive and Ms Bloomer can then be heard saying “please help me” to his aunt in a call on a second phone.

“The audio recorded Lauren’s screams and it recorded her calls for help,” Ms Gould said

Later in the recording, Notman can be heard saying: “I am going to make sure.”

Ms Bloomer’s phone picked up a thud as Notman drove over her in a Ford Kuga, an act that was witnessed by neighbours.

He then returned to the home without helping his partner, but later dialled 999 at 1.32am, telling the operator he had “been told I have killed my girlfriend”.

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Defence barrister Andrew Fisher QC said that Notman experienced an “extreme florid psychiatric episode” adding that he had “totally lost touch with reality and became wholly delusional”.

The judge accepted that Notman, who has no previous convictions, had shown concern and remorse for the grief he had caused.

Mrs Justice May added: “There is an obvious lesson… that cannabis can be very dangerous. It is an illegal drug for good reason.”

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