Nathan Owens strangled his 19-year-old stepdaughter Karla Georgescu at her university accommodation in England because he developed a dangerous sexual obsession with her, a court heard on Tuesday.
The 32-year-old killed the teenager in her student hall of residence in Lancashire after discovering she planned to meet a man she had connected with online.
University staff discovered her body on February 5, the day Georgescu was due to celebrate her twentieth birthday. She was found slumped against a wardrobe door with a leather belt tied tightly around her neck.
Lancashire is a county in northwest England, home to several large universities that attract students from across the United Kingdom and overseas.
The prosecution told the court that Owens was motivated by sexual jealousy, leaving his house the night before the murder to confront her.
The court heard that Owens began fixating on his stepdaughter after marrying her mother, Janina. The family relocated to the UK when the victim was 12 years old, following her parents' divorce.
Fake suicide scene
Investigators initially believed Georgescu had taken her own life because the belt around her neck was attached to a wardrobe handle.
However, forensic examinations revealed her head was positioned differently to what is typical in a suicide. A subsequent autopsy showed she had suffered two heavy blows to the head and cheek wounds from a knife or similar sharp object.
The medical examination also uncovered cuts and bruises to her nose and mouth, alongside sexual injuries. Her hands were covered in blood, which pathologists concluded were defensive wounds sustained while trying to block knife attacks.
Owens claimed he only visited the student apartment to collect his wife's wallet, which she had supposedly left behind days earlier.
When police arrested Owens, he briefly denied any involvement in the death but refused to answer further questions.
Escalating pattern
Prosecutors detailed how Owens gathered material on his stepdaughter in the weeks and months leading up to the killing. They said he secretly photographed her, focusing on her lower body, in what they described as an escalating pattern of sexual attraction.
The prosecution added that Owens filmed himself having sex with Georgescu's dolls and toys. This included using a life-sized dummy that he had dressed in her nightgown.
After the killing, the defendant attempted to cover his tracks by disposing of bloodstained clothing, sex toys and the victim's bedding.
The prosecutor told the jury that the death was the final point of a one-sided obsession that had lasted for weeks, months and possibly years. He concluded that Owens alone harboured the obsession, and Owens alone killed her.
