Cat killer inspired by true-crime show to serve 24 years for murder of stranger
A TRANSGENDER woman who murdered a stranger in a sexual fantasy inspired by a TV documentary will spend at least 24 years behind bars, a judge said yesterday.
Scarlet Blake, 26 will serve her sentence in a male jail.
Four months before she killed Jorge Martin Carreno, Blake filmed herself mutilating and dissecting a neighbour’s cat before putting it in a blender.
The act was a Valentine gift to her American girlfriend, who is a sex worker and also trans, a court heard.
Prosecutors said Blake, who grinned and made “meow” noises as she tortured the doomed animal, had been inspired by Netflix show Don’t F*** with Cats, about a pet killer who films himself stabbing and dismembering a man.
Blake had a fixation with murder and killed for her own “sexual gratification”, Oxford Crown Court was told. Jurors heard she targeted Spanish engineer Mr Carreno, 30, in July 2021, as he walked home after a night out in the city.
She led him to a secluded riverbank, clubbed him with a vodka bottle, strangled him, then pushed him into the water to drown.
Blake later returned at least twice to take photos, prosecutors said.
A coroner concluded Mr Carreno probably drowned while drunk and the two-year police probe had all but been closed down.
However, detectives were then called by Blake’s US lover, the court was told.
Texas-based Ashlynn Bell told them Blake had made a confession during a blazing row between the pair, in which guns had been pulled.
She said Blake had “boasted” about fulfilling her desire to open up a person like her “little cat friend”.
Blake also told her ex-fiancee, Evie Brockman: “I killed people because my lover thought it would be hot,” the court heard.
She denied murdering Mr Carreno but was convicted last week. Passing a life sentence yesterday, Mr Justice Chamberlain said Blake had a “clear sexual motivation” and enjoyed taking a life.
He told her: “I am sure you did derive pleasure from killing Jorge, as you had from killing the cat. You revelled in what you had done...and made conscious use of your status as a murderer to secure the admiration of others who shared your interests in harm, death and killing.”
Blake’s three-week trial heard Mr Carreno had been out with colleagues in Oxford city centre on the first Saturday night after lockdown restrictions lifted, when Blake found him sitting in the street. She was earlier seen on CCTV prowling the streets in a military-style hooded jacket, face mask and carrying a rucksack that contained a “murder kit” including a garrotte and dressing gown cord.
Blake claimed Mr Carreno may have killed himself after she left him, but traces of her DNA were found on the vodka bottle top.
The court heard she moved to the UK from China when she was nine and said she was transgender three years later, using the name Alice Wang while at school. She later used six different names and also sometimes identified as a cat.
After sentencing, Mr Carreno’s brother, Gerardo, said: “Throughout this trial, Scarlet Blake has shown no remorse for her actions, compounding our grief and making it even more difficult for us to process the barbarities and cruelties she has inflicted.
“Her arrogance is palpable and her lack of empathy is evident in her disrespect for our grief as we mourn the loss of a beloved son and brother.”
Det Supt Jon Capps, who led the Thames Valley Police investigation, said: “The acts Blake has been convicted of are barbaric and chilling.
“The murder was pre-meditated with total disregard and disdain for life. There can be no beginning to understanding this senseless act.”
‘You revelled in what you did and used your status as a murderer’