Woman jailed for murdering man who followed her should be a 'victim'

A woman who was jailed for murdering a man who followed her home from the pub should have been 'treated as a victim', according to her family and campaigners.

Learna Cheng, also known as Lea-Rose, stabbed Dylan Bacon, 39, inside her flat in Old Swan, Liverpool, on March 14 2022.

After being jailed for life in September 2023, Judge Neil Flewitt KC told her she had attempted to 'blacken' Mr Bacon's character' to 'avoid responsibility' for what she had done to him.

Now, as her case is set to be considered by the Court of Appeal tomorrow, a campaign group along with her father have claimed that she was subjected to sexual violence before the attack.

Cheng previously told Justice For Women (JFW) that she may 'never know what happened to me that evening' and 'something must have happened for me to stab him'.

Nicola Mainwood, who works with JFW and The Centre for Women's Justice, told the BBC: 'This is a young, vulnerable woman who's never been in trouble with the police.

'But she has previously been an abusive relationships and understandably, she sort of believes that something terrible must have happened for her to have reacted in this way towards him.'

She went on to say: 'If she had been treated as a victim of sexual violence, which the evidence suggests... maybe she wouldn't have been convicted of murder.' 

During the trial, the jury heard how Cheng was drinking with her grandfather in the Old Swan pub when Mr Bacon came over and joined them at their table.

The group appeared to be getting on well as Cheng took a sip of Mr Bacon's drink. She was then seen becoming unwell a short time later as she vomited on the table before being escorted back to her grandfather's nearby flat.

Mr Bacon was said to have also left and gone to a different pub that overlooked Cheng's grandfather's flat.

Cheng was then seen leaving the flat and heading to her own home a few streets away, which was when Mr Bacon walked after her.

Roughly 90 minutes later, cameras outside Cheng's flat showed the pair going into her home.

Two hours later, Mr Bacon staggered out after suffering multiple stab wounds.

The trial was told how Mr Bacon's semen was found on Cheng's clothing and her bra had been damaged.

Cheng told the jury she had no memory of what happened and said that the only reason she would have stabbed Mr Bacon was if he tried to sexually assault her.

She said she would never have consented to having sex with Mr Bacon and explained how she had no attraction to him.

However, sentencing her to a minimum term of 16 years, Judge Flewitt KC told the court Cheng had to tried to 'blacken [Mr Bacon's] character' to 'avoid responsibility for what you had done'.

He also said he 'strongly suspected' something had happened in the flat to cause Cheng to lose her temper, which was affected by the alcohol she had drunk.