The trial of Daniel Ainsley at Leeds Crown Court this week was a story of homelessness and complex mental health problems.
The convicted murderer was found guilty yesterday of stabbing 48-year-old Mark Wolsey to death in his bedsit at 38 Mayfield Grove.
Ainsley’s defence rested heavily on the fact that he had a personality disorder and claimed he was not able to make rational decisions.
However, the defence did not convince a jury on Friday afternoon.
‘A traumatic upbringing’
The 24-year-old had a “traumatic upbringing”, which included being bullied at school by older children who put cigarettes out on him.
His experiences at school led him to become suspicious of other people and being suspended due to his reaction to being bullied.
Ainsley started drinking at age 13 and was later said to have been drinking a litre of spirits a day. He started to report feeling low and anxious.
Dr John Kent, psychiatrist, and Dr Harry Wood, psychologist, who assessed Ainsley said he had a “complex psychiatric background” and “a lifelong pattern of behavioural problems”, which included a dependancy on alcohol.
On two occasions, he was assessed by mental health services in Harrogate where he reported hearing voices.
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In 2013, the court was told that he did not engage with mental health staff. Those who assessed him said his reports of hearing voices were “a symptom of his personality” and not psychotic.
Dr Kent concurred with this assessment and felt Ainsley’s accounts of hearing a voice telling him to murder Mr Wolsey were “unreliable” as he had not told Dr Wood the same.
In his 2021 assessment he told staff that he was feeling low and that he felt there was “no point being here”.
Despite the complex mental health background, Dr Kent felt that Ainsley was in control of his actions from “start to finish” on the night of the murder.
Homelessness
Ainsley was homeless and had been offered a place to live by Mark Wolsey after he was evicted from a hostel on Bower Road.
He put his head and arms through a window at the hostel, which later led him to moving to Mayfield Grove.
Ainsley had been homeless since 2020 and his mother gave evidence to say that she had been trying to find him a place in Ripon.
Mr Wolsey, who had known Ainsley for around three years, offered Ainsley a place to stay at Flat 4, 38 Mayfield Grove. He would later be killed in his own bedsit by Ainsley.
The mixture of alcohol dependancy and his personality disorder, which included paranoia, hyper-vigilance and lifelong behavioural problems, became central to his defence.
While Ainsley’s “abnormality of mental functioning” was something which both the prosecution and defence agreed he had, it was not enough to convince a jury that he had not intended to kill Mr Wolsey.
It took a jury five hours and 17 minutes to reach its decision on Friday.
Ainsley is facing a lengthy prison sentence. He will be sentenced by Judge Phillips at Leeds Crown Court on November 24.
