By Grâçia Ada Obi
A schizophrenic man who killed his mother outside their family home has been jailed for life, subject to a hospital order.
Gregor Bauld, who was 22 when he killed Christine Bauld, had delusions that his mother was the leader of a war tribe, the court heard.
He was a regular user of illegal drugs and believed his mother, 55, was an “alien” and a “paedophile”, the jury at Leicester crown court was told during his three-week trial.
Bauld, now 23, was cleared of murder but admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility on the first day of the trial. He was given a life sentence, of which he must serve a minimum term of 13 years and eight months behind bars.
During the trial, the jury was shown CCTV footage of Bauld chasing his mother, who was known as Tina, out of their four-bedroom detached house in The Coppice in Burbage, Leicestershire on 3 March.
Bauld was brandishing a kitchen knife, which he used to attack her, following an argument about his drug use.
Mary Prior KC, defending Bauld, said: “This is a man who was very seriously mentally ill. He believed – genuinely – that the world was at war with two tribes and the woman he loved most in the world throughout his life had become the leader of one of those tribes and was abusing him.
“His level of schizophrenia was very high and remains very high. He still presents a danger to himself, to other prisoners and to anyone who he comes into connection with, even with that high level of supervision and high level of medical care.
“He had a history of mental health difficulties which arose whether he had taken drugs or not. It is right and fair to say he took drugs – quite how much that impacted on what occurred cannot be clear in our submission.”
She added that Bauld had “untreated and undiagnosed” schizophrenia since “at least 2022”. The jury was told in the trial that Bauld had been in the “grip of a destructive cycle of drug abuse” and samples taken of his blood and urine contained traces of drugs including ketamine and LSD.
The prosecution barrister, Gordon Aspden KC, said: “There was abundant evidence of prolonged and persistent use of illegal drugs, which would have a significant impact on his mental health.
“The defendant was aware of the effects those drugs could have on his behaviour, having been previously sectioned. Nonetheless, he chose to use those drugs running up to the killing of his mother. He made choices in this case.”
Sentencing the defendant, judge Timothy Spencer KC said: “This killing was awful beyond imagination. It was a brutal, shocking taking of life.”
He added: “Your mother died in the road outside your house, and her house, with your father next to her as life expired with you watching on. The impact of this killing of your mother is described rightly by the prosecution as incalculable.”