Jorge Carreno murder: Scarlet Blake confessed murder to her ex, court hears

Jorge Carreno was a Spanish national working at the Oxford Mini plant

A woman accused of killing a man whose body was found floating in a river confessed the murder to her former partner, a court has heard.

Jorge Carreno, 30, was pulled from the River Cherwell at Parson's Pleasure, Oxford, in July 2021.

Scarlet Blake, 25, of Crotch Crescent, is accused of targeting him after he spent a night out with work colleagues.

Oxford Crown Court has previously heard she livestreamed the torturing and killing of a cat months before.

It also heard Ms Blake had a "fixation with violence and with knowing what it would feel like to kill someone", and struck Mr Carreno from behind, attempted to strangle him, and pushed him into the river.

Richard Sutton KC, defending, summarised the details of the alleged confession, which was given to Ashlynn Bell, a former partner in the US, and caused detectives to launch a murder inquiry almost two years after Mr Carreno's death.

The body of Jorge Carreno was found in the River Cherwell at Parson's Pleasure

Ahead of his cross-examination of pathologist Dr Brett Lockyer, he said: "Bell states she had seen the CCTV released to the media and confirmed this to be Blake.

"She also identifies the coat worn by Blake in the CCTV and she is in possession of this.

"Police believe we can confirm the person seen on the CCTV is Scarlet Blake.

"The disclosure Blake has made to Bell is that Blake lured Jorge away from a bar or found him alone and drunk walking from a bar and she then led him down a path to a river or pond where they sat and talked.

"She then got behind him and used a garrotte that she had made and used this on him."

'Neck compression'

Mr Sutton said the initial post-mortem examination said there was not "significant evidence" to support the involvement of a third party, and did not exclude it either.

Dr Lockyer explained that there was "no categoric, definite evidence that someone else had been involved" at the time.

But he said new evidence, including the confession, and a video of Ms Blake consensually using a ligature around a partner's neck, made him re-evaluate the significance of bruising on Mr Carreno.

He said he believed the bruising "could be more important than originally thought" because the information then "was that there was no involvement of neck compression".

He described it as "not fatal neck compression", but one that could cause Mr Carreno to lose consciousness.

It was "more likely than not that Mr Carreno was unconscious when he went into the water", he added.

Ms Blake denies murder.

The trial continues.

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