The callous web of lies spun by a 'depraved' killer to lure his student stepdaughter into a deadly trap are laid bare in messages recovered by police.
Jobless Nathan Owens, 34, is set to be jailed for life today after a jury took just over three hours to convict him of murdering Carla Georgescu, 19.
Consumed by sexual obsession and jealousy, on February 4, Owens drove through the night to Carla's university accommodation in Preston, Lancashire.
He had duped her into letting him in with a false story that he needed to pick up a purse, supposedly left when he and Carla's mother had joined her for an early birthday meal three days earlier.
Messages reveal how he falsely told Carla 'we' are on our way – when in reality, his wife Janina was asleep and oblivious, at home in bed.
The depraved 'coward' remained silent throughout his police interviews and his trial, meaning exactly what happened next may never be known.
But irrefutable evidence showed that having tricked his way in, Owens subjected Carla to a brutal sexual assault before strangling her, staging the scene to make it appear she had taken her own life.
He then drove home to Hartlepool 100 miles away, disposing of evidence including her mobile phone and bloodied bedding on the way.
Nathan Owens, 34, smirked and flicked his hair when found guilty of killing his stepdaughter on Thursday
Carla Georgescu, a 19-year-old clinical psychology student at the University of Lancashire, was strangled and murdered by Owens. Source: Lancashire Police
On February 1, Owens and his wife Janina had a birthday dinner with Carla in Preston. She was left alone at one point with her stepfather, where they are both seen looking at their phones
And in a final unimaginably callous act, on his arrival he deleted the last message Carla sent her mother to help cover his tracks.
When Carla's body was found, police initially assumed she had hanged herself.
However they became suspicious when they found footage of Owens arriving alone that night with a blanket over his head.
As the net tightened – with a desperate Owens searching online 'I think the police think I'm guilty’ – he set about deleting his electronic devices.
But thanks to telematics information later downloaded from Owens' Ford Puma, detectives would establish where he had stopped to dump evidence, and recovered Carla's phone.
It revealed how at 1.27am on February 4, Owens sent his 'intelligent, gentle and articulate' stepdaughter a message asking if she was awake.
When Carla replied that she was, Owens wrote: 'Your mum forgot her wallet at yours.
'We are going to come and get it, we should be there from 3.45 to 4.
'I'm sorry but she needs it before you leave.'
Carla, in a fluffy dressing gown, caught on CCTV letting her stepfather into her accommodation
Owens captured leaving the building around an hour-and-a-half later, 'shielding' himself from cameras with an umbrella and face-mask, while wearing Carla's trainers and carrying two bags
On the face of it, the urgency of the overnight dash was because Carla, a talented artist, was due to fly to her native Romania the following day to meet up with a boyfriend she had met online.
In reality, prosecutor Nicholas Lumley KC told his trial at Preston Crown Court it was his 'last chance to catch her before she went to Romania, to have her before anyone else could'.
His motivation was 'to satisfy his sexual needs, come what may', he added.
Totally taken in, Carla responded asking: 'What did it look like?'
After sending her a detailed description to keep up the pretence, at 3.35am Owens followed up by writing: 'We will be 20 minutes.'
Again, it was a lie – there was no 'we', Janina Georgescu was still asleep in bed.
Chillingly, as he prepared his evil plan, at 0.56am Owens had messaged his wife: 'I love you more than anything.'
Police suspect the purpose of the text was to check she had remained asleep.
CCTV caught Owens shopping in Asda with Carla's mother while her body lay undiscovered in her university halls
Police bodycam footage played at Preston Crown Court shows Owens, 34, being arrested
In the meantime, at 2.19am Carla had sent her mother a message in Romanian, asking: 'Where did you leave your purse?'
It of course remained unanswered.
Finally moments before 4am, Owens messaged Carla 'Hereed' – meaning 'Here'.
Footage shows how he deliberately parked in a side street, rather than in one of the spaces outside the block.
At this stage Owens' head is hidden by a patterned blanket – although he momentarily glances towards the camera, revealing his face.
He may have explained away Carla's mother's absence by saying she was asleep in the car, prosecutors said.
Owens was then captured leaving the building around an hour-and-a-half later, 'shielding' himself with an umbrella and wearing a face-mask.
In a grim sign of the bloody scene which had by now played out, he was wearing Carla's trainers and carrying two bags.
Carla's body was found at her University of Lancashire accommodation, Ribble Hall in Preston, on February 5 after her mother raised the alarm
When he arrived home at around 8.30am, his wife later recalled how he made no mention of seeing Carla in the night and seemed 'his normal self'.
But in a final betrayal, police established that Owens had deleted Carla's final message to her mother from Ms Georgescu's phone lest she become suspicious.
She later told jurors how the couple later went for their regular walk at a nearby beach together and also shopping at an Asda store – all while Carla's body lay undiscovered.
But over the course of the day, Ms Georgescu became worried when Carla did not respond to her messages and calls.
On February 5 – which would have been Carla's 20th birthday – she contacted university security and her body was found.
Police broke the news to the couple, with Carla's death initially put down to suicide.
Yet within hours, Owens was carrying out web searches about how police investigate suspicious deaths while also wiping his electronic devices.
He later gave Mrs Georgescu a false story about having gone to Preston that night because Carla had wanted him to take incontinence pants to her and help tidy her room.
And when police returned to the couple's home to ask about his movements that night, Owens lied that he and his wife had been to see Carla together.
At that stage Ms Georgescu was again asleep in bed and unable to contradict him.
By then, however, detectives had grounds to arrest him on suspicion of her murder.
The trial heard how jobless Owens hid his secret depravity from his psychotherapist wife.
Owens had become 'sexually fixated' with Carla, secretly taking pictures of her dressed in her underwear.
His 'escalating fascination' with Carla included having sex with a life-sized 'effigy' of his teenage stepdaughter which he had clothed in her nightdress.
On Thursday Owens smirked as jurors convicted him of murder and grievous bodily harm with intent.
He previously pleaded guilty to two counts of making indecent images of Carla over doctored childhood images.
He will be sentenced on Friday.