'I thought he had played some sort of joke': Drug addict accused of murder claims he woke up to find alleged victim dead

A drug addict accused of murder said he woke up to find his alleged victim dead on a sofa. Ian Connell denies murdering 45-year-old Donald Patience, whose body was found in his home in Radcliffe, Bury.

A pathologist said Mr Patience, originally from Scotland and also known as 'Prent', had been strangled to death and had likely died two days before he was discovered by police. Officers were called to the property on Ainsworth Road after a witness saw Mr Connell breaking into the house, Manchester Crown Court has heard.

Giving evidence in his defence for the first time, Mr Connell, 39, he had woken up in Mr Patience's home after taking heroin, only to find his dead body on the sofa in the living room. Mr Connell, who said he had been using heroin and crack cocaine 'on and off' for about 20 years, told jurors he woke up and discovered Mr Patience's body at some time on August 21, the day before he was arrested.

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"I had actually thought it was a mannequin," he said of the moment he claimed to have discovered Mr Patience's body. "I didn't think it was him.

"I thought he had played some sort of joke, I thought he had gone to Scotland." Mr Connell said that he and other people would take drugs in the house, and that prior to going into the living room he had been upstairs in a bedroom sleeping and taking drugs.

"I did hear Prent on a couple of occasions, but I didn't hear nothing alarming," he said. Mr Connell told jurors that he had met Mr Patience in 2021 through mutual friends, and claimed that they both had smoked cannabis.

He said that Mr Patience would lend him money, and that in return he would carry out work for him including painting and