Jury retires in case of woman accused of murdering Oxford man after killing cat

A jury has retired in the trial of a woman accused of murdering a 30-year-old man whose body was found in a river in Oxfordshire two years ago, months after she is alleged to have killed a cat.

Scarlet Blake, 26, is accused of targeting Jorge Martin Carreno, 30, as he walked home from a night out in Oxford 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.

Mr Carreno’s death came four months after Blake live-streamed the killing of a cat.

The court 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.

Jurors watched videos of the defendant and her partner engaging in consensual strangulation with ligatures.

Prosecutors allege the cat killing is 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, a BMW warehouse worker, had been on a night out with work colleagues in Oxford city centre before he died.

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 sat down.

After a short while they went together to Parsons Pleasure, where it is alleged Blake killed him.

Blake, who is transgender, said Mr Martin Carreno was alive when she left him there to walk home.

The defendant told jurors she had falsely confessed to murdering Mr Martin Carreno because Miss Bell, who lives in the US, had wanted her to kill a person after the cat incident.

Referring to the alleged confession, Blake told the jury she had seen news reports of the body being found and created a fictitious story.

“I told Ashlynn that I killed that person, I made up the details in a dramatic way,” she said.

“I told her I dumped the body in the river which is what they are now pulling out.”

The trial judge, Mr Justice Chamberlain, sent the jury out to consider its verdict on Thursday.

“How you go about deliberating is for you to decide. You may have heard of the possibility of majority verdicts but please put this completely out of your mind,” he said.

“If the times comes when I can accept a verdict that is not one on which you all agree I will invite you back into court and give you further directions.

“This will not be for quite some time and the initiative must come from me. You must take as long as you need and you are not under any pressure of time at all.”

The defendant, of Crotch Crescent, Oxford, denies a single charge of murder.

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