On a Friday night in March, Daniel Ainsley went to Asda in Harrogate, bought a set of kitchen knives, then dumped all but one in a bin outside the store.

He walked to 38 Mayfield Grove, where his friend Mark Wolsey had been letting him stay in his bedsit, and stabbed him 15 times.

Eight months later Ainsley, 24, was sentenced to 22 years in prison for murder.

The incident sparked revulsion for Ainsley and sympathy for Mr Wolsey, 48 — but it also triggered anger in a neighbourhood with long-standing crime concerns.

Daniel Ainsley (left) and Mark Wolsey

38 Mayfield Grove had been dubbed the house from hell as far back as 2005 when a court granted a three-month closure order after a crossbow was held at a resident’s head.

A Stray Ferret investigation this year revealed that between April 2008 and July 2021, North Yorkshire Police received 255 reports about 38 Mayfield Grove from the public.

People wanted to know why the police and Harrogate Borough Council had not done more to tackle activities at the house.

Homeless payments

They were particularly incensed that the council had transferred £2,112 in 2017 and £5,424 in 2018 to John Willis Properties Ltd, the company that owns the house.

The council said the payments were “to help customers assessed as homeless or threatened with homelessness to access private rented accommodation”. There is no suggestion of illegal activity by either party.

Locals said it beggared belief that the council had paid for homeless people to stay in a house that had been divided into six bedsits and where many tenants had multiple issues, such as drug and alcohol addictions and mental health problems, as well as backgrounds of homelessness and crime.

Read more:

• Investigation: Murder at Harrogate’s House from Hell
• Mayfield Grove: house at centre of crime concerns allowed to re-open
• Harrogate man Daniel Ainsley found guilty of murder

They said it was difficult to think of a more dangerous scenario than housing people with multiple needs together in a terraced home on a busy street, and this problem should have been identified and tackled.

Daniel Neill, who until recently lived on Nydd Vale Terrace, a street parallel to Mayfield Grove, said:

“The entire set-up is a recipe for trouble. It doesn’t take a genius to work it out. The worst thing you can do with addicts is put them alongside other addicts.”

The closure notice at 38 Mayfield Grove

Three houses closed

After the murder, the police and the council applied for a court order to close 38 Mayfield Grove, which meant tenants had to find alternative accommodation.

On June 28, magistrates granted partial closure orders against two other properties let as bedsits by John Willis, at 19 and 31 Avenue Grove, Starbeck, due to crime concerns.

Mr Willis later told the Stray Ferret he let 10 properties in Harrogate and was passionate about helping disadvantaged people, unlike many other housing providers, and did everything he reasonably could to protect them. He said:

“Other landlords cherry pick the best tenants and sadly that leaves a disadvantaged group. Homeless hostels are full. I try to help them.”

He said he’d taken many tenants from the council and partner agencies, such as Harrogate Homeless Project on Bower Street, close to Mayfield Grove, during his 31 years as a landlord.

Besides the closure orders, the police and council organised a residents’ summit and a community engagement drop-in session to discuss 38 Mayfield Grove and to reassure people that ‘the Harrogate district remains a safe place to live and any anti-social behaviour is taken very seriously’.

Police and council staff at the community engagement drop-in session.

But residents said the flurry of activity since the murder contrasted sharply with years of inertia that allowed crime to scar the neighbourhood and blight residents’ lives and called for action to prevent a repeat.

The police and council issued a joint statement after Ainslie’s conviction saying they had responded to and dealt with issues at Mayfield Grove “quickly and effectively”, and adding that criminals “will be held to account for their actions”.

Residents, however, continue to be concerned, particularly after a flurry of police activity on the street near the end of the year.

A Harrogate convicted murderer has been sentenced to 22 years in prison.

Daniel Ainsley, 24, of no fixed address, was found guilty of killing 48-year-old Mark Wolsey at his bedsit on Mayfield Grove last month.

Ainsley stabbed Mr Wolsey 15 times in the chest and arm with a kitchen knife on March 5.

He was sentenced at Leeds Crown Court this morning. He is expected to serve 21 years in prison after his 261 days spent in custody is deducted.

When sentencing Ainsley to prison, Judge Simon Phillips told him that the killing “left a massive hole” in the lives of those who knew Mr Wolsey.

He said:

“It has had a shattering impact upon those who loved him.”

Judge Phillips described Ainsley’s actions as “tragic and dreadful to a very high degree”.

He told Ainsley in court this morning:

“There is no doubt that you knew exactly what you had done.”

A “premeditated” and “goal-directed” murder

Ainsley was living in Mr Wolsey’s bedsit at 38 Mayfield Grove after he became homeless.

Police were first called to property on the night of March 5 after Mr Wolsey made a 999 call asking officers to remove Ainsley from his flat because he was scaring him.

He complained to the officers who arrived at the property that Mr Wolsey was keeping his medication from him, which led to an argument.

Read more:

• Harrogate murder accused ‘acted purposefully’, court told
• Harrogate man Daniel Ainsley found guilty of murder
• Investigation: Murder at Harrogate’s House from Hell

Ainsley was taken to Harrogate District Hospital to pick up medication by police and instructed not to go back to the flat.

At 9.21pm, Ainsley left the hospital and was filmed on CCTV walking to Asda on Bower Road.

After entering the supermarket, he went to the kitchenware aisle where he purchased a box of knives. Ainsley used his own bank card to pay for the knives and went outside to dispose of all but one of them.

Ainsley then returned to Mayfield Grove where he stabbed Mr Wolsey to death, leaving the victim in his chair with the murder weapon still in his chest.

He admitted manslaughter, but denied murdering Mr Wolsey on the grounds of diminished responsibility due to an “abnormality of mental functioning”.

However, it took a jury five hours and 17 minutes to find Ainsley guilty of murder on October 22.

Mark McKone QC, prosecuting, told Leeds Crown Court that the murder was “premeditated”, “goal-directed” and “purposeful”.

Convicted murderer Daniel Ainsley is set to appear before court today to be sentenced to prison.

Ainsley (pictured) was found guilty by a jury of murdering 48-year-old Mark Wolsey at his bedsit on Mayfield Grove in Harrogate.

Mr Wolsey was pronounced dead at the scene by emergency services after Ainsley stabbed him 15 times in the chest and arm with a kitchen knife on March 5.

Now, the 24-year-old will appear before Leeds Crown Court this morning for sentencing.

Ainsley was living in Mr Wolsey’s bedsit at 38 Mayfield Grove after he became homeless.

Read more:

• Harrogate murder accused ‘acted purposefully’, court told
• Harrogate man Daniel Ainsley found guilty of murder
• Investigation: Murder at Harrogate’s House from Hell

He admitted manslaughter, but denied murdering Mr Wolsey on the grounds of diminished responsibility due to an “abnormality of mental functioning”.

However, it took a jury five hours and 17 minutes to find Ainsley guilty of murder on October 22.

Mark McKone QC, prosecuting, told Leeds Crown Court that the murder was “premeditated”, “goal-directed” and “purposeful”.

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.

Read more:

• Harrogate murder accused ‘acted purposefully’, court told
• Harrogate man Daniel Ainsley found guilty of murder

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.

Daniel Ainsley’s brutal stabbing of Mark Wolsey was the culmination of more than a decade of trouble at one of Harrogate’s most notorious crime hotspots.

Now, as Ainsley awaits his sentence, angry local residents want to know why North Yorkshire Police and Harrogate Borough Council failed to clamp down harder on activities at the house where the murder happened.

They also want to know why the council transferred thousands of pounds to landlord John Willis Properties Ltd to accommodate homeless people, and accuse the council of being complicit in the problems by funding the volatile situation in the property when it should have been taking action.

Numerous residents, whose campaign to make the area safer fell on deaf ears, have vented their frustration to the Stray Ferret. They want to know why so little was done to address longstanding problems at the house — and what is being done to prevent a repeat.

Mark Wolsey, who was murdered at 38 Mayfield Grove.

A recipe for trouble

38 Mayfield Grove was branded the House from Hell in 2005 when a court granted a three-month closure order following a spate of crime, including a crossbow being held at a resident’s head.

The house, owned then and now by John Willis Properties Limited, of which the landlord John Willis is the sole director, has absorbed a huge amount of police time since then.

In this report we’ll hear the views of the local residents, Mr Willis, the council and the police. There is no suggestion of illegal activity by Mr Willis’ or John Willis Properties Limited’s behalf.

But the situation highlights how the system can fail to protect homeless people.

Flowers outside the home after the murder. The closure notice is pinned to the door.

255 police reports about 38 Mayfield Grove

A Freedom of Information request by the Stray Ferret revealed that between April 2008 and July this year, the public reported 38 Mayfield Grove 255 times to North Yorkshire Police. This averages almost two reports a month over 13 years.

The house is divided into six privately let bedsits and tenants often have guests. Ainsley was staying in Mr Wolsey’s bedsit when he killed him. Many tenants over the years have had multiple issues, such as drug and alcohol addictions and mental health problems, as well as backgrounds of homelessness and crime.

Local residents told us it’s difficult to think of a more dangerous scenario than housing people with multiple needs together in a terraced home on a busy street, and this problem should have been identified and tackled.

Daniel Neill, who until recently lived on Nydd Vale Terrace, a street parallel to Mayfield Grove that has other properties let by Mr Willis’ company, has been at the forefront of the residents’ campaign for a safer neighbourhood. He said:

“The entire set-up is a recipe for trouble. It doesn’t take a genius to work it out. The worst thing you can do with addicts is put them alongside other addicts.

“For 15 years people knew that 38 Mayfield Grove was the place to go for drugs. It was an open secret. Police did regular drive-bys. Yet it just kept going on.”

£7,000 council payments to John Willis Properties Ltd

Yet despite longstanding concerns about 38 Mayfield Grove, the council transferred £2,112 in 2017 and £5,424 in 2018 to John Willis Properties Ltd.

The council says the payments were “for the benefit of our homeless customers and were not made as part of a contract or agreement with the landlord”. It adds:

“The money paid to John Willis Properties Ltd was transferred to help customers assessed as homeless or threatened with homelessness to access private rented accommodation.”

Taxpayers’ funds were transferred to John Willis Properties Ltd until as recently as December 2018.

Read more:

• Mayfield Grove: house at centre of crime concerns allowed to re-open
• Harrogate man Daniel Ainsley found guilty of murder

While the council was paying John Willis Properties between March 2017 and December 2018, it received six housing complaints relating to seven properties let by the company and seven noise complaints relating to five properties.

Residents, who tried unsuccessfully to get a closure order against another of Mr Willis’ properties in the area in 2018, say the council not only failed to tackle problems going on inside the house but contributed to them by funding the landlord.

A letter from 45 residents to Richard Cooper, the leader of Harrogate Borough Council, sent after the murder, accused the council of oversight and complicity. It added:

“We don’t feel like valued members of the community. We don’t feel safe. We don’t feel like our voices are being heard.”

The letter also accused the council of “pulling the plug” on police and residents’ efforts to tackle issues at 38 Mayfield Grove.

Daniel Ainsley was staying in Mr Wolsey’s bedsit when he murdered him.

What could the council have done?

The council argues it has limited power to act but Mr Neill says the payments beggar belief considering the well-known problems associated with some of Mr Willis’ properties. The council, he says, was either blind or neglectful.

The options included adopting provisions in the Housing Act 2004, which give local authorities the power to use selective licensing to tackle anti-social behaviour, or introducing special interim management orders, which allow local authorities to take over the management of houses in multiple occupation.

The council’s private sector housing enforcement policy, which sets out its approach to complying with its statutory duties to ensure private sector residents live in good quality, safe accommodation, says the council will adopt ‘a positive prevention, intervention and enforcement approach’ to protect people from harm.

Three John Willis properties closed since murder

In the wake of the murder on March 5, the police and council moved swiftly to get a court order to close 38 Mayfield Grove for three months from March 22, which meant tenants had to find alternative accommodation.

On June 28, magistrates granted the police and council partial closure orders against two other properties let as bedsits by Mr Willis, at 19 and 31 Avenue Grove, Starbeck, due to crime concerns.

The police and council have also organised a residents’ summit and a community engagement drop-in session to discuss 38 Mayfield Grove and to reassure people that ‘the Harrogate district remains a safe place to live and any anti-social behaviour is taken very seriously’.

But residents say the recent flurry of activity contrasts sharply with years of inertia that allowed crime to scar the neighbourhood and blight residents’ lives. They also want to see action to prevent a repeat.

Mr Neill, who like many people in the area was concerned about the safety of his family, said:

“These problems have been going on for years.

“I don’t want individuals fired. I just want to make sure this doesn’t happen again, but I don’t get the impression the council is facing up to it.”

Mayfield Grove is close to Harrogate town centre.

Residents scared

Mr Neill says local police officers “have been nothing but helpful and straightforward” and share residents’ frustrations about the lack of council action.

But he was critical of a police initiative asking 120 homes to log anti-social behaviour, which attracted just three replies. The log obliged people to leave their names and addresses, which many residents were scared to do because it came shortly after a woman who was dragged down the street by her hair was threatened after going to the police

Another resident, who asked not to be named, said she had struggled to sell her house because of the area’s reputation. Another said:

“The amount of hassle caused by people in that house over the years is unbelievable.

“It’s almost like there are no lessons being learned. The same things happen again and again. I’m sick to my back teeth about it because nothing ever gets done.”

“I’m passionate about helping disadvantaged people”

The Stray Ferret put these accusations to John Willis. He said he was passionate about helping disadvantaged people, unlike many other housing providers, and did everything he reasonably could to protect them.

“Other landlords cherry pick the best tenants and sadly that leaves a disadvantaged group. Homeless hostels are full. I try to help them.”

Mr Willis said he lets 10 properties in Harrogate and the average age of his tenants is 50.

He said he’d taken many tenants from the council and partner agencies, such as Harrogate Homeless Project on Bower Street, close to Mayfield Grove, during his 31 years as a landlord. Some tenants, he said, had been with him throughout that time.

Asked whether housing people with multiple problems under one roof was a recipe for trouble, he said:

“Some have drug and alcohol addictions but they are mostly engaging with healthcare providers. Sometimes I’ve had to evict tenants but I have always had to work within the framework of the law.

“Sometimes you have to find likeminded people to live together. It can be difficult with tenants with challenging behaviours, that’s why it’s so important to engage with external agencies. But it can accentuate problems when you have them largely living under one roof.”

John Willis

Mr Willis said he offered to pay for a support worker to help tenants in his 10 Harrogate properties.

“I advertised for it and had 22 applications. But the council said it wasn’t a direction they wanted to go in because there was sufficient help already.”

The council, he said, had told him it had “paused” recommending tenants to him.

He said the 255 police reports about Mayfield Grove could include numerous cases of incidents merely being logged. But he added:

“There have been incidents and they have been followed up. Most tenants did have some healthcare professional or support worker. They were all on the radar.

“But it’s not 24/7 support and there’s only so much you can do.”

Mr Willis said he occasionally moved tenants between properties if they didn’t settle.

“Some tenants want to move and this is discussed with external agencies.”

He said he was responsive to tenants’ needs and operated legally.

“I’m not an absent landlord. It’s just unfortunate that there has been this incident.”

He said he and police had met Mr Wolsey a month before his death to discuss ways of helping him.

“He was a jovial character and I was very sad about what happened but at the end of the day there’s only so much a landlord can do.”

Forensic officers at the scene after the murder.

Police and council joint statement

The Stray Ferret asked Harrogate Borough Council and North Yorkshire Police a series of specific questions about why they hadn’t done more to address concerns at 38 Mayfield Grove and their relationship with Mr Willis. It also asked what actions were being taken to prevent further problems.

The two organisations issued a joint statement after the murder verdict. It said:

“Anti-social behaviour can blight the lives of residents and shatter local communities and we are absolutely committed to taking a multi-agency partnership approach to deal with any issues in Harrogate in both the short and long term via a range of strategies.

“In relation to 38 Mayfield Grove, extensive work has been undertaken over the years to ensure that a robust plan is in place to respond to concerns about crime, drug use and anti-social behaviour at the property and improve the quality of life for those living in the area.

“This has included undertaking a full options appraisal to consider the best use of available legislation and powers; progressing the use of a closure order at the property; and meeting with the landlord to specifically discuss the management of the property including the vetting and letting of perspective tenants. Further to this, a number of online meetings have taken place with community representatives; a community engagement event took place in June 2021 with representatives from both the police and council and residents have been sent several updates via letter.

“Since 2008, North Yorkshire Police has received 255 reports connected to the address – an average of around 20 reports a year – which has enabled authorities to respond and deal with issues quickly and effectively. The local community are our eyes and ears, and we would urge neighbours and residents to continue reporting matters and intelligence to us and we will continue to take the necessary action. If people commit criminal acts then they will be held to account for their actions.”

A 24-year-old man has been found guilty of murder on Mayfield Grove in Harrogate.

Daniel Ainsley, of no fixed address, killed 48-year-old Mark Wolsey after stabbing him 15 times in the chest and arm with a kitchen knife on March 5.

Ainsley was living in Mr Wolsey’s bedsit at 38 Mayfield Grove after he became homeless.

He admitted manslaughter, but denied murdering Mr Wolsey on the grounds of diminished responsibility due to an “abnormality of mental functioning”.

However, a jury at Leeds Crown Court delivered a verdict of guilty verdict for the murder charge today.

Police were first called to 38 Mayfield Grove on the night of March 5 after Mr Wolsey made a 999 call asking officers to remove Ainsley from his flat because he was scaring him.

Ainsley had been living with Mr Wolsey since being made homeless.

He complained to the officers who arrived at the property that Mr Wolsey was keeping his medication from him, which led to an argument.

Read more:

• Harrogate murder accused ‘acted purposefully’, court told
• Daytime knifepoint robbery in Ripon left ‘little boy crying’
• Investigation: Murder at Harrogate’s House from Hell

Ainsley was taken to Harrogate District Hospital to pick up medication by police and instructed not to go back to the flat.

At 9.21pm, Ainsley left the hospital and was filmed on CCTV walking to Asda on Bower Road.

After entering the supermarket, he went to the kitchenware aisle where he purchased a box of knives. Ainsley used his own bank card to pay for the knives and went outside to dispose of all but one of them.

Ainsley then returned to Mayfield Grove where he stabbed Mr Wolsey to death, leaving the victim in his chair with the murder weapon still in his chest.

Mark Wolsey

Mr Wolsey was found by neighbours and certified dead at the scene at 10.22pm. His cause of death was stab wounds to the chest.

After leaving the bedsit, Ainsley made a phone call to police admitting to the killing and asking for officers to come and arrest him. He also called his mother and father to tell them he “loved them” and that they would not “see him for a while”.

‘A clear case of revenge’

The prosecution during the trial described the murder as “premeditated”, “goal-directed” and “purposeful”.

Mark McKode QC, prosecuting, told Leeds Crown Court:

“There can be no doubt that the defendant intended to kill Mark.

“The defendant knew exactly what he was doing and did it in a calm and calculated way.”

Ainsley has a personality disorder, which his defence claimed “impaired his ability to form a rational judgement” and resulted in diminished responsibility.

The court was told that Ainsley had a “traumatic upbringing”, which contributed to his personality disorder.

He was also suffering from alcohol dependancy. There was evidence that Ainsley was intoxicated on the night of the murder.

Both parties in the case agreed that Ainsley was suffering from an “abnormality of mental functioning”, which was his personality disorder.

However, Mark McKone, prosecuting, said Ainsley “knew what he was doing was wrong” and pointed to his 999 phone call after the killing and as evidence.

He said:

“This was a clear case of revenge.”

Ainsley is due to be sentenced on November 24.

A man accused of murder on Harrogate’s Mayfield Grove had “impaired judgement” before killing his victim, a court heard.

Daniel Ainsley, 24, of no fixed address, is on trial charged with murdering 48-year-old Mark Wolsey in his bedsit on March 5.

He denies murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility due to an “abnormality of mental functioning”.

John Harrison QC, for the defence, called Dr Harry Wood, a clinical psychologist, to give evidence to Leeds Crown Court this morning.

Dr Wood told the court that after interviewing Mr Ainsley he concluded that the defendant had a personality disorder that stemmed from “his traumatic upbringing”.

He also told the court that his opinion was that Mr Ainsley interpretation of the events inside Mr Wolsey’s flat before the alleged murder were “directly influenced by his personality”.

Dr Wood said:

“He considers himself vulnerable and believes that others are likely to behave in an abusive and attacking manner towards him.”

Read more:

• Harrogate murder accused ‘acted purposefully’, court told
• Harrogate man appears in court charged with murder
• Daytime knifepoint robbery in Ripon left ‘little boy crying’

Dr Wood said that if Mr Ainsley’s account were to be accepted then his judgement “would be impaired as a result of a personality disorder”.

When questioned by prosecutor, Mark McKone QC, Dr Wood said he accepted that Mr Ainsley’s actions in the lead up to the alleged murder showed he was “in control”.

But, he told the court that the defendant’s judgement when arriving at those decisions was impaired.

Dr Wood said:

“The judgement Mr Ainsley made was irrational because of the bias in his thinking that comes from his personality disorder.”

He told the court that the defendant’s view of a “proportionate response” was “distorted”.

The prosecution argued that Mr Ainsley “knew what he was doing was wrong” and was capable of making rational decisions.

The trial continues.

A man on trial for murder in Harrogate “acted purposefully” in the lead up to killing his victim, a court heard yesterday.

Daniel Ainsley, 24, of no fixed address, is accused of murdering 48-year-old Mark Wolsey in his bedsit on Mayfield Grove on March 5.

He denies murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility due to an “abnormality of mental functioning”.

Much of the second day of the trial was taken up with talk about Mr Ainsley’s state of mind.

Dr John Kent, a consultant forensic psychiatrist told Leeds Crown Court that Mr Ainsley had a “complex psychiatric background” and “a lifelong pattern of behavioural problems”.

Dr Kent, who interviewed Mr Ainsley after his arrest, also told the court the accused had a “significant personality disorder” that went back to his childhood. One characteristic of this was paranoia, he added.

But he told the court that Mr Ainsley’s accounts of the incident differed and were “unreliable” and that, in his opinion, the defendant’s behaviour was “purposeful”.

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Mark McKone QC, prosecuting, asked Dr Kent what the significance was of the one hour interval between Mr Ainsley leaving 38 Mayfield Grove and returning to carry out the alleged murder.

Dr Kent told the court:

“It provides a great deal of time and opportunity to consider his behaviour.”

Dr Kent told the court that “from start to finish” Mr Ainsley was “aware of what he has done” and was able to “make conscious decisions”.

‘Can’t rely on his accounts’

Mr McKone asked Dr Kent whether Mr Ainsley’s actions amounted to diminished responsibility.

Dr Kent said:

“In my opinion he does not. Personally, his accounts I cannot rely on. It is difficult to know which accounts are important.

“Secondly, he is not psychotic. Thirdly, the behaviour described appears to be very purposeful and thought through in terms of each stage of his actions and consequences.”

Dr Kent said the phone call Mr Ainsley made to police after the alleged murder was an example of the defendant “being aware of his choices”.

Forensic officers at the scene after Mr Wolsey died.

‘Diminished responsibility’

John Harrison QC, for the defence, told the court that Dr Kent’s report to the court met the tests for diminished responsibility.

Mr Harrison asked Dr Kent whether the defendant’s interpretation of Mr Wolsey’s behaviour “may have been influenced by his tendency to paranoid thinking as a result of his personality disorder”.

Dr Kent told the court that he did not think it did.

The defence claimed it reflected “on his ability to form rational judgements”. Mr Harrison told the court that Mr Ainsley was suffering from an “abnormality of mental functioning” on the night of the incident.

The trial continues.

A trial opened today into an alleged murder on Harrogate’s Mayfield Grove.

Daniel Ainsley, 24, of no fixed address, appeared before Leeds Crown Court charged with the murder of Mark Wolsey on March 5.

Mr Wolsey, 48, died at the scene after police arrived at 38 Mayfield Grove at around 10pm.

Ainsley was arrested on suspicion of murder the same day. He denies the charge on the grounds of diminished responsibility due to an “abnormality of mental functioning”.

He appeared before the court this afternoon and spoke only to confirm his name.

Daniel Ainsley

In his opening statement this morning, prosecutor Mark McKone QC told the court that Mr Ainsley had murdered Mr Wolsey by “stabbing him many times with a large knife”.

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The court heard how the two men had been living in Mr Wolsey’s bedsit and had known each other for three years.

Mr McKone said Mr Ainsley had lived in the bedsit after “losing his accommodation”.

The prosecution said that at around 8.40pm on March 5, neighbours “heard arguing” coming from Flat 4 of 38 Mayfield Grove.

A 13-minute 999 phone call made by Mr Wolsey on the night was played to the court. In it, Mr Wolsey was heard asking for officers to come and remove Mr Ainsley from his bedsit.

After officers arrived, Mr Ainsley told them that he “just wanted his medication” and that Mr Wolsey was keeping it from him. Police later took him to Harrogate District Hospital to get some, Mr McKone said.

CCTV footage played by the prosecution showed Mr Ainsley leaving the hospital at 9.21pm and heading to Asda supermarket on Bower Road.

Footage from the supermarket then showed Mr Ainsley going to the kitchenware aisle and purchasing a box of knives before disposing of all but one.

Leeds Crown Court. Picture: The Stray Ferret.

The court was then shown footage of Mr Ainsley returning to Mayfield Grove. The prosecution then played a phone call made by Mr Ainsley at 10.06pm to the police where he told the call handler he had “killed someone”.

The prosecution alleges that Mr Ainsley was able to make “rational choices” and had murdered Mr Wolsey.

Mr McKone said:

“The defendant could and did make a rational judgement and rational decision.”

The prosecution will give further evidence tomorrow.

A 23-year-old murder suspect from Harrogate did not enter a plea today when he appeared at Leeds Crown Court.

Daniel Ainsley is accused of murdering Mark Wolsey, 48, who was found dead inside a flat in Mayfield Grove, Harrogate on March 5.

The case was adjourned for a further case management hearing on July 1, at which Ainsley, of no fixed abode, may enter a plea.

The trial was confirmed to take place on 18 October. Ainsley was remanded in custody until then.

Mr Wolsey was found with serious injuries after police were called to Mayfield Grove just after 10pm on a Friday night. He was certified dead at the scene by ambulance staff.

Extra police patrols were deployed in the area following the incident “to reassure those living and working nearby”.

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