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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Esther Halligan & Samantha Mordi

Killer seen on CCTV buying crisps with victim's card after leaving her dying on floor

A killer has been described as being on "auto pilot" as she was seen shamelessly buying a packet of crisps while her victim lay dying.

Footage shows Keegan Barnes, 28, walking into a local corner shop in her nightie after stabbing Toni Butler, 25, twice in her left leg.

She left Toni lying at the bottom of her staircase after she fell down the stairs, Teeside Crown Court previously heard.

Barnes was found guilty of manslaughter on Thursday and was today sentenced to eight years and six months in prison.

She took taken Toni's card to pay for a packet of Space Raider crisps and a lotto scratchcard at a One Stop shop in Stockton-on-Tees, North Yorkshire, the court was told.

Shop assistant Georgia Sharp said that Barnes "looked like she was hollow or on auto pilot" as she wandered around the store, Teeside Live reports.

By 12.45 that morning, paramedics had found Toni dead on the floor. The second time Barnes stabbed her friend, Toni's posterior tibial vein was severed, meaning she had slowly bled to death.

Barnes claimed that Toni was "fine" and had been "up and walking about" and said she had asked Barnes to buy her more alcohol from the shop.

Footage released by Cleveland Police shows the last time Toni was caught on camera as she walked down an alley.

It has been accepted that the exact timing of events that morning may never be known.

Barnes also claimed she needed to buy sanitary products and claimed Toni ate the Space Raiders she bought, which the post mortem was unable to determine.

Barnes claims she then went to sleep on the sofa, as she needed to sleep after a three-day drugs binge.

However, paramedics found the washing machine was in full spin and a bottle of bleach with bloody imprints on it was found upstairs, the court heard.

Blood-stained clothes were also found in a carrier bag on top of the cooker and in a pan outside the bathroom, jurors were told.

As forensic scientist Michelle Walton testified "there had been a clean-up operation" going on in Keegan Barnes' house.

Barnes even claimed that Toni got up and helped clean up some of the blood.

Toni suffered catastrophic blood loss some time between 4.17am and 12.30pm.

Barnes is now starting an eight and a half year jail term after being found guilty of manslaughter.

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