Murder trial accused ‘acts like a cat to express joy’
A CAT torturer accused of murder is a transgender woman who has multiple personalities including a feline character, a court heard yesterday.
Scarlet Blake, 26, is charged with killing Spanish engineer Jorge Martin Carreno, 30, as he walked home alone after a night out in July 2021.
The jury was told Blake has a ‘fragmented’ personality and has adopted at least six personas, including a cat which she uses to express joy.
Testifying while flanked by two prison guards, she meowed at the jury to demonstrate how she would greet friends in this character.
Blake told Oxford Crown Court that she has suffered from mental health problems including depression and ‘dissociative amnesia’ since she was a child.
She added that she came out as transgender aged 12 and received hormone treatment from 17.
Blake referred to herself as ‘us’ and ‘we’ and has called herself ‘your typical internet trans cat girl’.
The jury was shown messages in which she referenced different names including Scarlet, Alice, Candy and three others.
She said that while some of these personas had ‘sort of stopped existing’, others remain and ‘sometimes it feels like there are various people in my head’.
Blake added: ‘My personality is not a cohesive whole, it’s like a pie chart with parts that have specialisations in context.
‘For example the cat. The cat is a really strong association with joy and I suppose an innate goodness.’ Blake, who was born in China and moved to the UK when she was nine, has admitted being with Mr Carreno the night before he was found dead but denies murder. His body was found at a popular bathing spot in the River Cherwell in Oxford.
Prosecutors allege Blake killed him because she had a ‘fixation’ with ‘knowing what it would be like to kill someone’ and derived ‘sexual gratification’ from violence and death.
Jurors previously heard how Blake admitted to the sadistic killing of a pet cat four months before she allegedly murdered Mr Carreno.
As a Valentine’s Day gift to an expartner, Blake had live- streamed herself killing the cat and putting its dismembered body in a blender after being inspired by the Netflix series Don’t F**k With Cats.
Blake said Ashlynn Bell, who lives in the US and is also transgender, wanted her to kill the cat and she did not feel she could refuse.
The pair met on an online forum where they discussed self-harm and violence while sharing graphic images. Cats were often featured.
The trial continues.
‘My personality is like a pie chart’