A transgender woman has been found guilty of murdering a BMW engineer in a ‘Don’t F*** with Cats’ inspired killing.
Scarlet Blake, 26, battered and strangled Jorge Martin Carreno, 30, after stalking the streets of Oxford looking for a ‘vulnerable victim’.
She targeted Carreno, who was a stranger to her as he walked home from a night out in July 2021. His body was found in the River Cherwell at Parsons Pleasure having drowned after receiving a blow to the back of his head and being strangled.
Four months before the cold-blooded murder, Blake had filmed herself dissecting and putting a neighbour’s cat in a food blender.
Blake showed no emotion as a jury at Oxford Crown Court returned a guilty verdict.
The jury of five women and seven men reached their verdict after deliberating for just six hours after a trial lasting eight days.
After the guilty verdict, Jorge’s devastated family who had travelled from Spain to attend the trial paid tribute to ‘beloved son and brother’.
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. Going through the pain of losing a son, a brother, under such tragic and unjustified circumstances, is a trial no family should face.
‘Today his absence leaves a deep wound in our hearts.’
Blake’s mother Chen, who was seated a few feet away, showed no emotion as her daughter was found guilty.
Judge Martin Chamberlain told Blake she would be sentenced Blake on Monday.
The judge thanked the jury and said they wanted to seek help over the distressing evidence they had heard during the trial they should do so.
Blake had admitted dissecting the animal, removing the fur and skin and placing it in a blender but blames her former partner Ashlynn Bell.
The court previously heard Blake had an ‘extreme interest in death and in harm’ and killed the family pet after watching a Netflix documentary called Don’t F*** With Cats: Hunting An Internet Killer. In the programme, a man, Luka Magnotta, kills kittens before filming a murder.
His body was pushed into the River Cherwell where he drowned.
Prosecutors said Blake had deliberately set out to kill after previously revelling in the slaughter and dissection of a neighbour’s cat.
While her death-obsessed partner Bell watched from her home in the US, Blake live streamed cutting up the cat while it was still alive.
Jurors have also seen videos of the defendant and her partner engaging in consensual strangulation with ligatures.
Prosecutors had alleged the cat killing was relevant to the murder trial as it shows Blake has a ‘disturbing interest in what it would be like to harm a living creature’.
Mr Martin Carreno, who is from Spain and worked for BMW at their Cowley plant, had been on a night out with work colleagues in Oxford city centre before he died.
He had been out drinking with friends to celebrate the lifting of Covid lockdown restrictions in July 2021.
Unfamiliar with the streets of Oxford, Blake came across him sitting on a bench around 4am.
CCTV shows Blake wearing a heavy-duty coat, face mask and carrying a backpack – walking around the city centre before approaching Mr Martin Carreno, who was sitting down.
The sixth-form school dropout persuaded Mr Carreno to follow her to the isolated beauty spot Parsons Pleasure overlooking the River Cherwell.
CCTV captured Carreno as he was led to his death but there were no cameras at the riverbank where he met his death.
Blake had claimed Mr Carreno was alive when she left him there to walk home.
His body was found by dog walkers two days later with a postmortem showing signs of blunt force trauma to the head and strangulation.
His death remained unsolved for almost two years until police received a call from Ashlynn Bell who revealed she had a ‘murder confession’ from Blake.
She also produced a combat jacket worn by Blake on the night of the killing and captured on CCTV.
Blake admitted to making the confession after giving evidence in her own defence and claimed it was all made up to please Bell, a gun and death-obsessed transexual.
She said they had talked about what it was like to kill someone and had wanted to impress Bell.