Cat killer blames ex for killing animal, court hears

Scarlet Blake, 26, who is on trial accused of murdering a man, used food and a crate to capture the family pet and take it to her home where she killed it.

Oxford Crown Court heard details of how Blake dissected the animal after killing it, removed the fur and skin and placing it in a blender.

Prosecutors allege the killing is relevant to the murder trial as it shows she has a “disturbing interest in what it would be like to harm a living creature”.

Blake is accused of murdering Jorge Martin Carreno, 30, in Oxford city centre in July 2021.

It is alleged the BMW worker suffered blows to his head, was strangled and then drowned in the River Cherwell.

Giving evidence, Blake blamed her ex-partner Ashlynn Bell, who lives in the US, for making her kill the cat.

“I suppose it came to a situation where I didn’t really feel I was able to refuse that request from her where she asked me to do it for her,” Blake said.

“It is something I very much didn’t want, so I suppose I emotionally distanced myself from the animal to be able to do it.

“So, she doesn’t hurt me otherwise, as she will, and does when I don’t listen to her.

“It is something to make her happy and it is something she wanted me to do, so I pretended to enjoy it, I guess.”

Richard Sutton KC, defending, asked Blake about her smiling her at the camera during the video.

The defendant replied: “It was a very choreographed laugh. I am pretty sure my face was not like that the whole time.”

Blake, who has pleaded guilty to a charge of criminal damage relating to killing the cat, explained she enjoys taking apart “inanimate objects” and “seeing how they are put together”.

“I guess I was just pretending the cat isn’t real or sentient,” she said.

She explained to the jury how she felt compelled by Ms Bell to kill the cat, which happened four months before Mr Carreno died.

“There was a building up and her conditioning me to obey what she tells me to do,” she said.

“She would make me do things on video call like cutting myself or setting up a noose from the ceiling and putting my head through it.

“I would be rewarded if I did it promptly and followed instructions and I would be punished if I don’t.”

Blake described the details of graphic online chat between the couple as “fantasy” and for Ms Bell’s “sexual gratification”.

“The whole thing is a suspension from reality,” the defendant said.

“For her, I am sure it would have been sexually arousing. For me it is a reciprocation for her pleasure.”

Earlier, Blake had explained to the jury she was born in China and came to live in the UK aged nine.

Age 12 she told her parents she was transgender and since 17 has been on medication to block testosterone, and also takes oestrogen supplements.

Jurors heard that Blake had been diagnosed with depression when she was younger and had a fragmented personality, including being a cat for which she would meow at friends.

“There’s a part that is just a cat, which is strange and that seems to me what the happy part of me is. In that they come out when I am happy,” she told the jury.

“With friends I know quite well who are aware of this part of me I meow at them in greeting.

“It is quite strange it is very prominent when I am expressing certain emotions.

“For example, the cat has a pretty strong association with joy, and I suppose the innate goodness. It is a kind of childhood innocence.”

Blake also did an impression of a meowing cat to show the jury how she would meow at her friends.

Mr Sutton asked whether she had “any other sides” to her personality, and Blake replied: “There have been many that come and goes.

“I wouldn’t say I would fit a textbook definition of dissociative identity disorder in that there are not hard boundaries.

“For me it is more fluid.”

Blake, of Crotch Crescent, Oxford, denies murder.

The trial was adjourned until Tuesday.