Scarlet Blake: Cat killer obsessed with violence jailed for life for murdering man

A cat-killer obsessed with violence and death has been jailed for life and told to serve a minimum of 24 years after being convicted of murdering a man she deliberately targeted as part of a warped sexual fantasy inspired by a Netflix documentary. Scarlet Blake, 26, deliberately targeted Jorge Martin Carreno, a 30-year-old Spanish national, as he walked home from a night out in Oxford in July 2021.

She led him to a secluded riverbank where he was hit to the back of the head with a vodka bottle, strangled and then pushed into the River Cherwell where he drowned, Oxford Crown Court heard. Blake, of Crotch Crescent, Oxford, denied murder but was convicted on Friday (February 23) and will be sentenced on Monday morning (February 26).

Prosecutors said Blake killed the BMW worker because she had a “fixation with violence and with knowing what it would be like to kill someone”. His murder came four months after Blake live-streamed the sadistic killing of a cat, after which she dissected the animal, removed its fur and skin and placed its body in a blender.

During the horrific video, the New Order song True Faith plays in the background, which the court heard was in homage to the Netflix documentary called Don’t F*** with Cats in which a man kills kittens before filming the murder of a human.

During the trial, the court heard Mr Martin Carreno had been out with work colleagues in Oxford city centre and was trying to get home when Blake found him sat down in the street. She was captured on CCTV prowling the streets of Oxford looking for a victim wearing a heavy military-style hooded jacket, face mask and carrying a rucksack, which prosecutors said contained a "murder kit" a garrotte and leopard print dressing gown cord, which she denied.

Blake also denied she was looking for a victim that night and instead had gone for a walk because she could not sleep. She said she walked with Mr Martin Carreno to Parsons Pleasure and left him there alive to go home. She told the trial: “I don’t know how he died. I assumed he drowned. It wasn’t something I did. As to how, I still don’t know, I wasn’t there.”

It was suggested Mr Martin Carreno may have taken his own life, but any hint he was suicidal was rejected by his friends. An empty bottle of vodka was found in the river and the bottle top was nearby on the bank, which had traces of the defendant’s DNA on it.

Home Office pathologist Dr Brett Lockyer said he did not believe it likely the Spanish national could have died accidentally. He ruled out the possibility Jorge died immediately after being strangled with a broad ligature or neck hold and said he drowned.

The court heard Blake confess to former partner Ashlynn Bell, who lives in the US, that she had killed Mr Martin Carreno with a homemade garrotte before throwing his body in the water. According to Thames Valley Police, Black has shown to be a character that lacks empathy and has lived life in fantasy, devoid of reality, with a complete lack of any remorse or compassion throughout the investigation.