A cat-killer obsessive about violence and demise is dealing with life imprisonment after being convicted of murdering a person she intentionally focused as a part of a warped sexual fantasy impressed by a Netflix documentary.
Scarlet Blake, 26, singled out Jorge Martin Carreno, 30, as he walked home from an evening out in Oxford in July 2021, earlier than brutally attacking him.
She led him to a secluded riverbank, the place he was hit on the again of the pinnacle with a vodka bottle, strangled after which pushed into the River Cherwell the place he drowned.
Prosecutors mentioned Blake, who’s transgender, killed Mr Martin Carreno as a result of she had a “fixation with violence and with knowing what it would be like to kill someone”.
His homicide got here 4 months after Blake live-streamed the sadistic killing of a cat, Oxford Crown Court heard.
Blake instructed the household pet: “Here we go my little friend. Oh boy, you smell like shit. I can’t wait to put through the blender.”
After the violent killing, she dissected the animal, eliminated its fur and pores and skin, and placed its physique in a blender.
During the horrific video, the New Order music True Faith performs within the background, which the court docket heard was in homage to the Netflix documentary Don’t F*** With Cats, by which a person kills kittens earlier than filming the homicide of a human.
Blake “boasted” concerning the killing with others and “her desire to open up a person like her ‘little cat friend’”.
The prosecution mentioned Blake had an “extreme interest in death and in harm” and obtained sexual gratification from violence and killings.
Jurors watched a disturbing video of Blake consensually tying a ligature round her then accomplice’s neck from behind and pulling it tight, till she seems to fall unconscious.
The court docket heard the BMW employee had been out with work colleagues in Oxford metropolis centre and was making an attempt to get home when Blake discovered him sitting down on the street.
She was captured on CCTV prowling the streets of Oxford searching for a sufferer, carrying a heavy military-style hooded jacket, face masks and carrying a rucksack.
Prosecutors advised she was carrying a “murder kit” in her rucksack, together with a garrotte and leopard print dressing robe wire, which she rejected.
Giving proof, Blake denied she was searching for a sufferer that evening and as an alternative had gone for a walk as a result of she couldn’t sleep.
She mentioned she walked with Mr Martin Carreno to Parsons Pleasure and when she left to go home he was nonetheless alive.
“I don’t know how he died. I assumed he drowned. It wasn’t something I did. As to how, I still don’t know, I wasn’t there,” she instructed the jury.
It was advised Mr Martin Carreno might have taken his personal life, however any trace he was suicidal was rejected by his mates.
An empty bottle of vodka was discovered within the river and the bottle prime was close by on the financial institution, which had traces of the defendant’s DNA on it.
Home Office pathologist Dr Brett Lockyer mentioned he didn’t imagine it probably the Spanish nationwide might have died unintentionally.
The court docket heard Blake confessed to former accomplice Ashlynn Bell, who lives within the US, that she had killed him with a selfmade garrotte earlier than throwing his physique within the water.
She instructed jurors she had made up the main points of the killing as a result of Miss Bell needed her to kill somebody after making her live-stream the killing of the cat.
“I wasn’t interested or willing – it was an awful thought to me,” she mentioned.
“In the interest of keeping her happy, because I wanted her to kill me one day, because it’s sexually stimulating for me, that idea.
“She was wanting to make me do this thing and I was pretty much, well, at a limit, after going through the killing of the cat.”
During her proof Blake claimed she had a fragmented persona, which included being a cat, and meowed on the jury to point out how she would work together with mates.
“There’s a part that is just a cat, which is strange and that seems to me what the happy part of me is. In that they come out when I am happy,” she mentioned.
“With friends I know quite well, who are aware of this part of me, I meow at them in greeting.
“It is quite strange, it is very prominent when I am expressing certain emotions.
“For example, the cat has a pretty strong association with joy, and I suppose the innate goodness. It is a kind of childhood innocence.”
The defendant, of Crotch Crescent, Oxford, confirmed no emotion as she was convicted of homicide after about round six hours of deliberations. She will probably be sentenced on Monday by Mr Justice Chamberlain.
As she left the dock she smiled briefly in direction of the general public gallery.
Alison Morgan KC, prosecuting, mentioned the Crown can be inviting the court docket to impose a minimal jail time period beginning at 30 years, as a result of it was “a murder involving sexual or sadistic conduct”.
In an announcement afterwards, Mr Martin Carreno’s household paid tribute to “our beloved son and brother”.
“The loss of Jorge has left an open wound in the heart of his family but also in all those who had the pleasure of knowing him,” they mentioned.
“There can be no peace until justice is served. We ask not only for justice for him but also for protection to prevent other people, other families, from suffering the immense pain caused by such cruel and senseless murders.”
Detective Superintendent Jon Capps, who led the investigation, described the case as “truly disturbing”.
“This defendant showed calculated cruelty. The acts Blake has been convicted of are barbaric and chilling. The murder was premeditated with total disregard and disdain for life,” Mr Capps mentioned.
“There can be no beginning to understanding this senseless act.”
