Teen in court for ‘sex game murder’ of man he met in Manchester’s Gay Village
Frank Lennon (pictured) was allegedly murdered by Daniel Kurmelovs during a sex game gone wrong. (GMP)
A teenager has denied murdering a man he met in Manchester’s Gay Village during a sex game gone wrong.
Daniel Kurmelovs, 18, appeared at Manchester Crown Court this week charged with the murder of 53-year-old Frank Lennon.
Prosecutors believe Kurmelovs murdered Lennon due to injuries the man suffered after his death.
“What started out as a masochistic act performed by Mr Kurmelovs with Mr Lennon’s consent ended up with the defendant strangling Mr Lennon to death, breaking two of his ribs in the process, looting the flat and body of Mr Lennon and squirting liquids, pastes and gels from a variety of containers on Mr Lennon’s body,” Paul Reid QC told the court, quoted in Manchester Evening News.
Suspect met victim at Manchester’s Gay Village
During the trial, the jury heard an interview police conducted with the suspect following his arrest.
The teenager had told police he identifies as bisexual, and that he had visited the Gay Village in search of a “good time,” reported Manchester Evening News.
He had just been asked to leave The Eagle Bar in Bloom Street when he met Lennon, who was on his way to the venue.
Kurmelovs, who admitted to smoking and injecting drugs earlier that day, told officers that he asked Lennon for “some money.”
“I was strangling him then letting go. I didn’t realise I had gone too far. He just hit the floor.”
— Daniel Kurmelovs
He said that Lennon refused to give him any money, but said to him: “If you are there when I come back out, I will give you some money.”
Kurmelovs claimed that Lennon then asked if he wanted to come over to his flat in Collyhurst.
Kurmelovs reportedly met Lennon on his way out of The Eagle Bar in Manchester’s Gay Village. (Google Maps)
He said the thought he and Lennon were “going to have sex then go.”
The court heard that Lennon asked Kurmelovs to strangle him for “masochistic pleasure.”
Kurmelovs initially refused to do this, the jury heard, but agreed after Lennon said he would pay him.
Teen ‘asked to strangle man in sex game’
The teenager strangled Lennon, as he lay face down on the floor, five or six times “on and off” with his hands and a scarf, the jurors heard.
“I was strangling him then letting go,” Kurmelovs told the court.
“I didn’t realise I had gone too far. He just hit the floor.
“He weren’t moving. I checked his pulse and he was dead.”
The teenager said that when he strangled Lennon for the final time, the 53-year-old told him: “Don’t stop.”
Kurmelovs told the jury he used a pair of scissors to cut Lennon’s ear to “check if he was still alive.”
The teenager added that he got “really angry,” before trashing Lennon’s flat.
Prosecutors accused Kurmelovs of stealing Lennon’s crucifix neck chain, watch, and 5,000 cigarettes the man, a heavy smoker, had brought back from a trip to the Spanish island of Ibiza.
When questioned about the provenance of the items from a woman who later called the police on the teenager, Kurmelovs allegedly said: “I killed someone for them.”
The trial continues.
