Cat killer Scarlet Blake found guilty of murdering Jorge Martin Carreno

The body of Jorge Martin Carreno was pulled from the River Cherwell in Oxford in July 2021.

Scarlet Blake, 26, was out on the streets of the city looking for a victim before meeting the 30-year-old, Oxford Crown Court heard.

She had a "fixation with violence and with knowing what it would feel like to kill someone", the jury was told.

Blake, who previously pleaded guilty to a charge of criminal damage relating to the cat, will be sentenced on Monday.

The trial heard she came to the UK from China aged nine, and came out to her parents as transgender at 12.

She said it "made my father really unhappy and my mother as well" and "caused a large emotional rift".

Prosecutor Alison Morgan KC told jurors Mr Martin Carreno, who was a Spanish national working at the Mini plant in the city, had been on a night out drinking with colleagues after Covid restrictions had been lifted.

He later became separated from his friends, and possibly became lost, before having the "great misfortune" of bumping into Blake.

They met at the Radcliffe Camera landmark in the city, where she offered him a bottle of vodka before she led him towards the river.

Ms Morgan said: "It was no accident that she found [Mr Martin Carreno], and no accident that she took him to a secluded location."

The court heard she hit him over the head, attempted to strangle him, then pushed him into the water where he drowned.

Blake previously told the jury about an online relationship that developed with Ashlynn Bell, another trans woman, in the US.

She said killing the cat was something she "very much didn't want" and claimed she killed the pet to please Ms Bell and only pretended to enjoy it.

But the court heard how she dissected it and put it in a blender, taking "grotesque pleasure" in doing so.

Blake, previously known as Alice Wang, had an "extreme interest in death and... harm" which "went beyond mere fantasy", the court heard.

Ms Morgan said she found "sexual gratification from the thought of violence and the thought of death".

A video Blake filmed of the cat killing was considered so graphic it would not be shown in court in an unedited form, Ms Morgan said.

But stills were shown of Blake smiling at the camera and of the cat restrained.

Audio was also played, in which she appeared to say: "Here we go my little friend… I can't wait to put you through the blender."

Later she says: "Well I wonder where I learn to do this to a person."

The New Order song True Faith could also be heard in the background, which the court heard was in homage to the Netflix documentary Don't F*** With Cats, in which a man kills kittens before filming the murder of a person.

Senior investigating officer, Det Supt Jon Capps, said there had been aspects of the case which had been "truly disturbing" and jurors would be offered support due to the nature of the evidence.

He added: "This defendant showed calculated cruelty. The acts Blake has been convicted of are barbaric and chilling. The murder was premeditated with total disregard and distain for life.

"I want rather to focus on Jorge and his family and pay tribute to them and the enormous dignity they have shown throughout this ordeal."

During the trial, the court heard Mr Martin Carreno had been out with work colleagues in Oxford city centre and was trying to get home when Blake found him sat down in the street.

She was captured on CCTV prowling the streets of Oxford looking for a victim wearing a heavy military-style hooded jacket, face mask and carrying a rucksack.

Prosecutors suggested she was carrying a "murder kit", including a garrotte and leopard print dressing gown cord, which she rejected.

Giving evidence, Blake denied she was looking for a victim that night and instead had gone for a walk because she could not sleep.

She said she walked with Mr Martin Carreno before leaving him to go home.

"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 told the jury.

In a tribute, Mr Carreno's family said he was an "exceptional being" who had an "immense desire to live and enjoy life".

They said: "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. This loss feels like a traumatic, devastating blow, leaving a void impossible to fill."

-bbc