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Man pleads not guilty to murder after body found

News imageBBC A police car is parked on the road alongside a grassed hill. There are two large blocks of flats in the background.BBC
A 55-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene at a flat in Hanley on 12 November

A man has pleaded not guilty to murder after the body of a man was found at a flat in Stoke-on-Trent.

Police were called to a property on Linfield Road, Hanley, at about 21:30 GMT on 12 November over a report that a man had been discovered unresponsive inside.

He was pronounced dead at the scene, and was subsequently named as Stephen Lovatt, 55, of no fixed address.

Barry Scott Johnson, 56, of Winsford, Cheshire, has been remanded in custody ahead of a trial at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court on 13 May.

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