Inside the warped desire of Scarlet Blake: How besotted trans killer strangled victim in Don't F**k With Cats-style plot to arouse twisted ex-girlfriend before bragging 'my lover said it'd be hot'

On Monday, perverted killer Scarlet Blake was jailed for life for murdering a stranger to satisfy her warped sexual desire.

The 26-year-old murdered engineer Jorge Martin Carreño, 30, as he walked home alone from a night out in Oxford on July 25, 2021. Sentencing Blake, the judge said there was a ‘clear sexual motivation’ for the killing.

She led him to a secluded riverbank before hitting him on the head with what is thought to have been a vodka bottle or something else she had brought with her before she strangled him and pushed him into the water, where he drowned.

Blake, who is transgender, had a fixation with murder and killed for ‘sexual gratification’, according to prosecutors.

The murder came four months after she filmed herself mutilating and dissecting a neighbour’s cat before putting its body in a blender as a Valentine’s gift to her trans sex worker girlfriend in the US, Ashlynn Bell.

In the early hours of July 25, the day of the killing, Blake took a photo of herself wearing a combat jacket that was intended to look dark and menacing and sent it to Ashlynn Bell.

After the murder, she told Bell of the jacket’s significance and sent it to her. When it was recovered, the jacket ‘had Ashlynn Bell’s semen all over it’, the judge said.

Scarlet Blake, pictured in August last year, was convicted at Oxford Crown Court

The court heard Blake confessed to former partner Ashlynn Bell (pictured), who lives in the US, that she had killed him with a homemade garrotte before throwing his body in the water

BMW worker Mr Carreno (pictured) had been on a night out when he was approached by Blake

A still image from a video issued by police of Scarlet Blake holding a cat head after killing it

Blake had been inspired by the Netflix show Don’t F**k with Cats, about a pet killer, and she grinned and ‘meowed’ as she tortured the animal during a sickening live-stream video.

She remained free for more than two years after Mr Carreño’s death and the case was blown open only when her now-former partner, a gun-obsessed trans escort, told police that she had confessed to the murder following a blazing row.

A jury of five women and seven men reached a verdict of guilty to murder after deliberating for six hours following a trial lasting eight days.

Mr Justice Chamberlain sentenced her to life in prison with a minimum term of 23 years and 169 days, after he said she derived ‘pleasure’ from the killing of both Mr Carreño and her neighbours’ cat.

Moreover, the judge said she ‘revelled’ in her disgusting actions by using her ‘status as a murderer to secure the admiration of others who shared your interests in harm, death and killing’.

During sentencing, he said: ‘Your decision to kill Jorge was not a reaction to something he had said or done.

‘It was not a momentary mistake. It was not a decision made in anger or because your emotions overcame you.

Blake’s ex-partner Ms Bell (pictured) has a fearsome collection of military-grade weapons and equipment as well as a liking for Nazi memorabilia

Witness Ashlynn Bell told police that she was too mentally damaged to give evidence in court

An image entitled ‘First date with me’ which showed pictures of duct tape, a knife, rope and a handgun had also been downloaded to the 25-year-old’s phone, the court has previously been told

Prosecutors say Blake had a fetish for strangulation and was obsessed with violence and death. Jurors were previously shown a collage of nine female killers that was saved on Blake’s phone

‘It was the culmination of a plan you had been considering and formulating for months.

‘The messages you sent before and after 25 July 2021 show an obsession with harm and death.’

Jorge Martin Carreño was one of three triplets who had only turned 30 on July 7, less than three weeks before his murder.

During Blake’s sentencing, the judge said of Mr Carreño: ‘His brothers and parents describe him as someone who radiated kindness and humour and spread joy with his wit and contagious curiosity.

The court heard Blake had an ‘extreme interest in death and in harm’ and killed the family pet after watching the Netflix documentary ‘Don’t F*** With Cats: Hunting An Internet Killer’

In the show, a man films himself putting two kittens in a translucent plastic storage bag before he switched on a vacuum cleaner and sucked out all the air

Luka Magnotta films himself killing kittens before going on to kill Jun Lin Luka Rocco

Jun Lin was brutally murdered by Luka Magnotta

‘He was always ready to help and lend a listening ear to others.

‘His life was full of love for music, photography, climbing and sports.

‘He had studied electrical engineering and dreamed of making a difference in the world.

‘He used his engineering skills in his work here in Oxford, at the BMW plant in Cowley.’

His ex-partner Irene Hidalgo ‘described him as the kindest person she had ever met’, the judge added.

The dearly loved engineer was brutally killed by sick murderer Blake, who later told one of her partners she committed the horrific act  ‘because my lover said it’d be hot’.

Blake believed, correctly, that Ashlynn Bell would find the murder sexually exciting.

Scarlet Blake pictured in Intrusion nightclub in Oxford

A mugshot issued by Thames Valley Police of Scarlet Blake who was found guilty of murder

Twisted killer Blake stunned police who came to arrest her for murder by revealing that she had the microchip from a cat implanted in her own body.

Hours after being arrested for the murder of random stranger Jorge Martin Carreno, Blake – who would later claim to identify as a cat and meow when happy – blurted out to officers that she had been ‘chipped’.

Initially sceptical, officers quickly obtained a machine reader – and were amazed to discover that Blake did indeed have a microchip inserted in her own chest.

It remains unclear where or why she obtained the device, as it’s not thought to have been taken from Starlet, the neighbours’ cat that four months earlier she had sliced up and put in a food blender.

Mr Carreño’s body was found floating in the River Cherwell in Oxford in 2021.

His death was initially thought to be accidental or suicide and remained unsolved for two years.

In fact, Blake was so confident she had carried out the ‘perfect murder’ that she had boasted about it to her girlfriend.

Yet a blazing row between her and sex worker Ashlynn Bell – during which guns were pulled – led to police being tipped off about her confession.

The Mail revealed that the case rested on information provided by Ms Bell, who didn’t give evidence because prosecutors feared she would ruin their chance of a conviction.

Messages between the pair recovered by detectives showed a dark fascination with violence and death, with scarcely an exchange passing without reference to murder or self harm.

Photographs show that Ms Bell has a fearsome collection of military-grade weapons and equipment as well as a liking for Nazi memorabilia.

She also advertised herself on a website for trans prostitutes in Texas, where she charges $100 an hour for her services.

Photographs on the site showed her posing with an AK-47 assault rifle and wearing cat ears.

The pair met during the pandemic on Discord, a secretive online messaging platform.

They joined an invite-only group dedicated to ‘artistically rendered gore’ in which users would trade sickening self-harm images.

The messages between Blake and Ms Bell recovered by detectives showed them openly discussing killing, including one in which Blake said: ‘F*** I need blood, this is bad.’

In another, Ms Bell said the combat jacket Blake wore to kill Mr Carreño had a ‘serial killer musk’ after she had posted it to the US at her lover’s request..

When she was finally caught by police, Blake tried to spin an ‘elaborate’ web of rationalisations for what she did and ‘shift responsibility to others’, the judge said.

Mr Justice Chamberlain said:  ‘You told the court that you didn’t want to kill a living creature, let alone a person, and it was Ashlynn who pressurised you to do so.

‘You attributed your morbid interests to a split or dissociative personality, using the language of psychiatry or psychoanalysis.

‘You adopted the persona of a cat.

‘You talked about the difficulties you had had since transitioning in childhood to live as a woman and about your troubled relationship with your parents.

‘All this was part of an elaborate attempt to rationalise what you had done and shift responsibility to others.

Blake stalked and killed 30-year-old Jorge Martin Carreno (pictured) in July 2021

‘There is no evidence that you suffer from any relevant mental illness or other mental disorder.

‘What you did is not the fault of a society that didn’t accept you.

‘It is not the fault of your parents.

‘Whatever role Ashlynn Bell may have played in encouraging your interest in killing, she remained in the United States. She did not control or direct you.

‘Even if the decision was motivated in part by a desire to please her, the decision to kill was entirely yours.’

In March 2021, she filmed herself cut open and ‘eviscerated’ her neighbours’ cat that was alive for at least three minutes as it was hanging from it’s neck by a ribbon ligature.

She had lured the poor animal with a cat carrier and cat food.

The film was a present for Ashlynn.

Finally, after the cat suffered three minutes of ‘intense pain’, she stabbed, dissected and removed its heart, which she kept as a memento.

Once she had dissected the cat, she said, ‘Well, one day I want to learn how to do this to a person.’

The judge said that audio of the film made clear ‘the thing you enjoyed most was seeing the animal gasping and panicking before it died’.

After killing the cat, she put a scalpel in its eyes before skinning and decapitating it.

She smiled and laughed while posing with the cat’s head.

Then she put the cat in a blender.

Later, at her trial, Blake would claim she derived no pleasure from what she did and it was all to please her lover Ashlynn Bell.

She even tried to convince the jury that she disapproved of people who were cruel to animals.

However, the judge said: ‘The audio we all heard and the stills and video clips we saw of you smiling and laughing while posing with the animal’s severed head leave no doubt whatsoever that you personally enjoyed what you were doing, as well as the pleasure that Ashlynn Bell derived from it.’

The film Blake created had the song True Faith by New Order playing over and over in a loop.

The same track is featured in the Netflix documentary Don’t F**k With Cats about a man who kills cats and later people.

Sentencing Blake, the judge told her: ‘You said in evidence that the choice of track had nothing to do with the documentary.

‘I am sure that this was untrue and that the documentary played a part in cementing in your own mind the link between killing a cat and killing a person.’

She went on to kill Mr Carreño just months later.

The vile murderer returned to the scene of the crime days later to photograph tributes left to the young man by his grieving family.

She even returned a year later with another partner to boast about killing him and pose for a photo at the scene of the crime.

Alison Morgan KC, prosecuting, told the jury: ‘He died because he encountered the defendant on that night’

Jurors have been shown CCTV camera footage of Mr Carreno and Blake’s movements around the city centre hours before his death

CCTV footage shows Scarlet Blakes movements on the night she killed Mr Carreno

Video showed Mr Carreno trying to find his way home, not realising he had dropped his wallet

The judge said: ‘This photograph was another memento of the murder you had committed. It reflected the pleasure you derived from your status as a murderer.’

He added that it ‘showed a profound contempt for the suffering you had inflicted on Jorge’s family’.

The judge said: ‘You were completely indifferent to this suffering.’

Although there was ‘ample evidence’ that Blake took sexual gratification from strangulation, there was ‘no evidence of any sexual assault on Jorge, either while he was alive or on his body after death.’

There was also no ‘evidence of any sexual activity occurring at the scene or immediately after the killing’.

Speaking about how Blake planned the murder, the judge addressed the trans killer and said: ‘There was a very significant degree of premeditation. I am satisfied that the idea of killing a person had already occurred to you before you killed the cat in March 2021.

‘That is why you said that you wanted to learn how to do this to a person. No doubt with the encouragement of Ashlynn Bell, the fantasy of killing a person became a plan. That plan became settled and concrete over a period of four months between March and July 2021.

‘When you left home in the early morning of 25 July 2021, I am sure that you had intended to kill someone for some time.

‘The murder also involved substantial planning. The date and time were not coincidental.

‘It was the first weekend after nightclubs were permitted to open following the lifting of the Covid restrictions.

‘You knew that, between 3.00 and 4.30 am on a Sunday morning, you stood a good chance of finding someone vulnerable. That is why you picked that time to walk into central Oxford.

‘You took considerable care over what you would wear, taking a photograph of yourself in the jacket which then became a macabre symbol of what you had done.

‘And you had identified Parsons Pleasure in advance as a location where you could kill without being seen or disturbed.

‘Although you knew nothing of your victim, your process for selecting him was quite deliberate. You can be seen on CCTV sizing up potential victims.

‘When you happened upon Jorge, you selected him precisely because you thought he looked vulnerable, sitting as he was on the ground at 4 o’clock in the morning, smaller and slighter than you and likely to have had something to drink.

‘You must have discovered after you engaged him in conversation that he had lost his wallet and couldn’t find his way home. You selected and confirmed him as a possible victim because of his vulnerability.’