Who was Tom Noakes and what happened to killer Hayden Fitzpatrick?

A night out turned into a nightmare in 2018 as two young lives were lost at a hotel in Manchester in an incident which has remained shrouded in mystery.

Channel 5 series Britain’s Hotel Murders explores the deaths of Tom Noakes and Hayden Fitzpatrick, who had been on an evening out in the city with colleagues.

By the early hours of the following morning, Mr Fitzpatrick was found on the pavement outside the hotel, and Mr Noakes was discovered with significant head injuries in a room in the hotel. Both died that morning.

The hour-long documentary, the fourth in the eight-part series, airs on Channel 5 at 11.05pm on Monday 14 July.

We take a look at those involved in the hotel deaths and how they happened.

Who was Tom Noakes?

Tom Noakes was one of four siblings from Eccles in Salford, who had come out to his family at the age of 19.

The 29-year-old worked for an insurance firm and had been out in Manchester on the night of 25 September 2018, celebrating a friend’s birthday and payday.

He had messaged his mother, Angela Noakes, at around midnight to say he was heading home.

But he never returned.

Instead, he checked into room 130 of the Britannia Hotel in Portland Street in the city with 21-year-old Hayden Fitzpatrick.

Who was Hayden Fitzpatrick?

Hayden Fitzpatrick also worked at the insurance firm with Mr Noakes and had been on the night out but was not in a relationship with him, according to Angela Noakes.

She told a coroner’s court her son had described Mr Fitzpatrick as “very clingy, liked attention and didn’t like to be told no”.

When fellow colleagues had drifted home after an evening out, Mr Noakes and Mr Fitzpatrick had checked into the Britannia Hotel at 1:40am.

They had purchased a large bottle of Prosecco, and phone records obtained by the police revealed the pair had contacted a drug dealer to obtain cocaine.

What happened in room 130 of the Britannia Hotel

While in the room, data from Mr Noakes’ mobile revealed he had been using a dating app.

Detective Inspector Andy Butterworth told an inquest into Mr Noakes’ death, “there were text messages and access to an app called Grindr”.

Mr Noakes had conversations with a man known as “Andreas”, who came to the hotel and was met in reception by Mr Noakes.

“Andreas” went to room 130 and stayed until 4.26am.

On his departure, both Mr Noakes and Mr Fitzpatrick were still understood to be alive as they were sending text messages until 4.45am.

Police were unable to access the content of Mr Fitzpatrick’s iPhone as it was encrypted, the court heard.

A hotel guest in room 132 told the police he had heard what sounded like “basketball bounces against the wall, six or seven thuds, and somebody talking to themselves” coming from the adjacent room 130 during the early hours of 26 September.

At 5.30am, police found the body of Mr Fitzpatrick on the pavement outside the hotel.

He appeared to have smashed a hotel window with a fire extinguisher and then fell five stories to his death.

A keycard in his pocket led officers to room 130, where they found Mr Noakes seated on a chair, unresponsive with significant head injuries. Paramedics were called, but he was declared dead at 6.22am.

On a bedside table in the room was a magnum of Prosecco, which was covered in blood.

Det Insp Butterworth told the hearing police had no doubt the prosecco bottle was used to bludgeon Mr Noakes to death.

There were no defensive injuries on Mr Noakes, and a post-mortem revealed he had died from blunt force trauma to the head.

Police were unable to establish a motive for the killing, but Det Insp Butterworth said if Mr Fitzpatrick had survived he would “definitely” have been charged with murder.

Assistant Coroner Andrew Bridgman recorded a conclusion of unlawful killing of Mr Noakes at Manchester Coroner’s Court in June 2019.

He told the court that at some time between 4.45am and 5.30am on 26 September 2018, Mr Fitzpatrick launched “what can only be described as a callous and frenzied and seemingly unprovoked assault” on Mr Noakes.

“Why Tom was struck in the first instance will always remain a mystery,” the coroner added.

Speaking after the inquest, Mr Noakes’ family described him as a “funny, caring, honest and compassionate” man whose death had left “a gaping hole in our hearts and our lives will never be the same again”.