A ‘sexually obsessed' stepfather on trial for murdering a 19-year-old student at her university accommodation was today asked if he had tried to treat her 'like one of your effigies'.
Delivering his closing speech, prosecutor Nicholas Lumley KC questioned whether Carla Georgescu 'paid' with her life because she 'dared to say no' to Nathan Owens.
Jurors at Preston Crown Court have been told the 34-year-old was motivated by 'sexual jealousy' after learning the second-year clinical psychology student planned to meet a man she had been romantically involved with online.
It followed his 'escalating fascination' with Carla, including having sex with a life-sized 'effigy' which he had clothed in her nightdress, the trial has heard.
A day before her planned trip to her native Romania to meet her online boyfriend, Owens drove more than 100 miles through the night from the family home in Hartlepool.
Footage played to the trial shows Carla – wearing a fluffy dressing gown and pyjamas – letting Owens into Ribble Hall, her block of student flats at the University of Lancashire, at around 4am on February 4, his head hidden by a patterned blanket.
He was captured leaving the building around an hour-and-a-half later, 'shielding' himself with an umbrella and wearing a face-mask while wearing Carla's trainers and carrying two bags.
Owens then drove back home to Hartlepool, allegedly stopping en route to dump items including bedding later found to contain traces of Carla’s DNA.
Carla Georgescu, a 19-year-old clinical psychology student at the University of Lancashire, was allegedly strangled and murdered by her stepfather Nathan Owens
Nathan Owens, 34, arrested on suspicion of murdering his stepdaughter, Carla Georgescu, in police bodycam footage played at his murder trial at Preston Crown Court
On February 1, Janina and Owens had a birthday dinner with Carla in Preston and she was left alone at one point with her stepfather where they are both seen preoccupied with their phones
His Romanian wife Janina has told jurors he did not mention having been to see her daughter in the night when she awoke later that morning.
She became worried when Carla did not respond to her messages and phone calls, and the following day – which would have been Carla's 20th birthday – contacted university security.
They carried out a welfare check and discovered her body slumped against a wardrobe door with a belt around her neck.
Police initially believed her death was suicide but became suspicious after Owens 'lied' about his movements that night.
He has declined to give evidence in his defence, with the trial judge today telling jurors they were 'entitled' to hold his silence against him.
Summing up the prosecution case, Mr Lumley said Carla ‘had everything to live for’ and was ‘excitedly’ buying clothes ahead of a trip to Romania.
He said Carla's mother 'had no idea how much sexual pleasure he derived from her daughter'.
‘Janina simply had no idea she had brought such a man into her daughter’s life.’
Carla Georgescu, in a fluffy dressing gown, caught on CCTV letting her stepfather Nathan Owens, 34, into her university accommodation in Preston at around 4am on February 4, 2026, with his face covered by a blanket
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
Saying Carla had no sexual interest in her stepfather, Mr Lumley told jurors he drove to her flat in the early hours of February 4 because she was 'going away the next day'.
‘He knew that was the last chance to catch her before she went to Romania, to have her before anyone else could,' he added.
His motivation was ‘to satisfy his sexual needs, come what may’, he added.
As Owens listened silently from the glass-panelled dock, Mr Lumley said there was now only one person who knew exactly what happened after Carla let him into her flat, and he was 'in this room'.
Addressing his remarks at Owens, the prosecutor asked whether he then treated Carla ‘like a doll, like one of your effigies', or a 'rag doll to be used for your needs'.
Asking if he killed Carla because she ‘dared say no, and dared to push you away’, he added: ‘Did she pay for that?’
Mr Lumley suggested that after using a belt to make Carla's death look like suicide, Owens then cleaned the blood off himself before leaving, dumping the stained bedding on his way back to Hartlepool.
Addressing the defence argument that Carla’s death may have been suicide, the prosecutor questioned whether it was plausible that she could have inflicted all the injuries herself.
Carla's body was found at her University of Lancashire accommodation, Ribble Hall in Preston, on February 5 after her mother raised the alarm
Pointing out that Carla wrote and drew extensively to express her emotions, he asked why there was no suicide note.
‘It’s almost as if being strangled to death wasn’t quite her idea,' he added.
Mr Lumley also asked why Owens did not tell his wife he had been to see Carla in the night when he arrived home that morning if he had nothing to hide.
Highlighting his decision not to give evidence and submit to being cross-examined, Mr Lumley asked jurors: ‘If you were innocently accused of murder, would you just sit there and say nothing?
‘He prefers the haven of the dock. He doesn’t want me asking him those awkward questions.’
The reality, the prosecutor said, was that Owens was a ‘coward’ who had ‘brutally assaulted and murdered’ Carla and ‘can’t bring himself to tell you what he did’.
Concluding his speech, Mr Lumley said: ‘It’s his right to sit there and for the prosecution to prove his guilt.
‘Well we have.’
Delivering his own speech, John Elvidge KC, defending, asked jurors to consider ‘alternative explanations’ for Carla’s death.
He said the scene in Carla’s room after her death showed ‘scant sign of a struggle’.
Meanwhile, medical experts had been unable to rule out the possibility her injuries were ‘self-inflicted’, he added.
Additionally, no witnesses had come forward to say they heard a disturbance that night.
Describing Mr Lumley’s speech as ‘eloquent’ and ‘rhetorical’, he said the prosecution had ‘made a great deal’ about the ‘salacious sexual aspect’ of the case.
But while it was a ‘compelling’ narrative, it was also an ‘extraordinary coincidence’ that Carla had been found hanged when she was ‘fixated’ with suicide.
Her mental health had been affected by the recent death of her natural father and she had previously spoken of self-harming, he said.
Earlier today the trial judge, Mr Justice Jacobs, told jurors that it was Owens’ ‘right’ not to take the opportunity to ‘contradict or undermine’ the case against him.
But he told them they were also 'entitled to conclude’ that Owens ‘did not have an answer to the prosecution case that would stand up to cross-examination’.
Before his arrest, Owens told Ms Georgescu he went to Preston that night because Carla had wanted him to take incontinence pants to her and help her tidy her room.
But the prosecution say this was an attempt to 'cover his tracks' and 'keep his wife onside' and that the truth is that he brutally attacked Carla before fleeing the scene, dumping evidence and attempting to cover his tracks.
The prosecution allege he had become 'sexually fixated' with Carla and her death was the culmination of weeks, months and perhaps years of a 'one-sided sexual obsession'.
He is also said by the prosecution to have taken photos of Carla without her knowledge, filmed himself having sex with her dolls and toys, and manipulated an innocent image of her so it appeared sexual.
Owens denies charges of murder and grievous bodily harm with intent.
The trial continues.