The Daily Telegraph - Saturday
Murderer who mutilated cat copied Netflix killer’s scheme
Max Stephens and
Fiona Parker
A MURDERER copied a Netflix killer by mutilating a cat then attacking a stranger and blaming someone else for encouraging them, a court has heard.
Scarlet Blake, a 26-year-old transgender woman, was yesterday found guilty of killing Jorge Carreno in July 2021, having hit him in the back of the head with a vodka bottle before strangling him and pushing him into the river Cherwell where he drowned.
Blake had previously admitted killing a cat and putting it in a blender four months earlier, on the instruction of a former girlfriend, having been inspired by a Netflix documentary about a man who filmed himself killing kittens before murdering a student.
But during a two-week trial, Blake denied attacking Carreno – a stranger who was on his way home from a night out – saying that the same girlfriend, Ashlynn Bell, had encouraged a graduation from killing animals to a human. “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,” Blake told the court. “She was conditioning me to obey what she wanted me to do. I wasn’t interested or willing – it was an awful thought to me.”
The trial revealed disturbing details about Blake’s relationship with US-based Ms Bell, with the pair meeting on a forum for people who were interested in “gore”.
Blake’s attack on the cat – in which the pet was skinned and put in a blender – was live-streamed online to Ms Bell, who the court heard “wanted” to watch.
The video was set to the New Order song which featured in the Netflix documentary
chronicling the case of Luka Magnotta. Magnotta – who played the song himself while killing kittens – uploaded videos of his attacks on animals before going on to film himself murdering a university student. Magnotta, now 41, initially claimed he was coerced into the 2012 murder by a friend called “Manny” – but police found no evidence this individual ever existed.
Last summer, Ms Bell told police that Blake had confessed Carreno’s murder to her. However, Blake attempted to convince jurors that this was a false confession. “I wanted her to kill me one day, because it’s sexually stimulating for me, that idea,” the court heard. “She was quite obsessive over how, apparently, I killed someone for her, and how now she’s dating a murderer. She seemed to enjoy it.”
The relationship between Blake and Ms Bell is thought to have broken down some years ago but the pair were still in contact. A video shown to the jury showed Blake putting a ligature around Ms Bell’s neck and squeezing it until she lost consciousness.
A text message sent by Blake to Ms Bell offered further insight into their relationship. It read: “I would murder my mum for you... I also want to kill my dad one day... maybe when they are old I can just put a respirator with pure nitrogen on their faces while they sleep.”
Also found on Blake’s phone were morbid memes, with one depicting a rope, tape, a gun and knife, with the caption “first date with me”. An image of a woman wearing a T-shirt with an image of two speech bubbles reading “you’re cute” and “murder me” was also shown to the jury.
Blake’s identity as a biological male who came out as transgender aged 12 was first raised by judge Martin Chamberlain at the start of the trial.
As he summed up the facts on Thursday, Judge Chamberlain told the jury: “The fact she is trans on its own has no particular relevance to this case.
Yet, he added that jurors were allowed to consider her “stature” and whether they believed she was “physically able” to carry out the attack on Mr Carreno.
At 10st 12lb (69kg), the court heard Blake weighed almost two stone more than her victim – who was a stranger to her – and was as tall as Carreno, at around 5’ 7” (171cm).
Blake, who was born in China and emigrated to the UK in 2002, told jurors that never exercising was a means to avoid “masculine muscle gain”. Jurors heard Blake’s strength was the equivalent of an “unfit female”.
Blake previously went by the name Fangze Wang and later Alice Wang, spending her childhood in a detached bungalow in Marston village on the outskirts of north-east Oxford.
Blake showed no emotion as the guilty verdict was passed yesterday, but smiled while leaving the dock. Blake’s sentencing is due to be held on Monday.
Scarlet Blake strangled stranger after night out and tried to blame motive on her US-based partner