A man who drove 100 miles to kill his stepdaughter on her 20th birthday before doctoring evidence to make it appear as if she had taken her own life has been given a life sentence.
Nathan Owens became sexually obsessed with his partner’s daughter Carla Georgescu, keeping doctoring childhood images to look indecent and filming himself committing sexual acts in her bedroom.
He also made an ‘effigy’ of Carla, a student of psychology, clothed in a nightdress, Preston Crown Court heard.
A jury was told that Owens, 34, had invented an excuse to visit his stepdaughter in Preston, claiming her mother Janina had left her purse at her university halls of residence during a visit the previous week.
He made the journey from Hartlepool, where he and Janina lived, on February 4 this year, asking Carla if she was still awake after 1am.
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The sexual predator had assured her mother he ‘loved her more than anything’ in a message just moments before.
Carla was last seen alive on CCTV showing her letting Owens into her accommodation in Lancashire, where he proceeded to strangle and sexually assault her in a violent attack, before fatally stabbing her with a knife.
Owens then attempted to cover up his crimes, staging the incident as a suicide, and left the building via a different route wearing a face mask and carrying bags full of evidence taken from the scene.
He used Carla’s umbrella and even wore her shoes as he walked to a nearby bin which he found locked, discarding the bags before picking them up again in his car away from the view of cameras.
Tracking data showed Owens had made several stops on his return jouney to scatter evidence in different areas including in a hard shoulder on the M6.
When he returned home he continued as if nothing had changed, holding his wife’s hand and going shopping at the supermarket as normal.
In an attempt to further conceal the previous night’s events, he deleted a message sent by Carla to her mother inquiring about her lost purse, which she had never seen because she was asleep.
Carla was discovered dead in her room by police and university staff after her mother requested a welfare check, having received no word from her daughter on her birthday.
Owens eventually admitted to Janina that he had visited Preston that night, lying that Carla had requested help tidying her room and claiming he had made the trip to bring her some incontinence pads.
Following arrest at his home, Owens denied murder and declined to provide evidence in court or offer any explanation for his actions.
The stepfather was also charged with wounding with intent and had admitted to two offences of making an indecent image of a child.
He was found guilty on all charges by a unanimous jury.
Mr Justice Jacobs, sentencing, said Owens had subject Carla to a ‘horrific, brutal attack’.
The judge said: ‘The last 90 minutes of Carla’s life are too horrendous to think about.’
He said that Owens had shown no remorse and had taken ‘victim blaming to the limit’ in attempting to hide his crimes, adding the fact Carla’s mother had to give evidence simply served to show how ‘despicable’ the stepfather was.
‘The evidence at the trial of her mother, friends and lecturers at university described a young woman who was down to earth with a good sense of humour’, he continued.
‘Everything suggests that she would have gone on to make a great deal of her life.’
DI Pete McDonald said: ‘Carla had her whole life ahead of her, which was ripped away by someone she should have been able to trust. Owens has taken Carla’s life, but he has also changed her mum’s completely. He has torn apart the family he was trusted to love.
‘As Carla’s stepfather, he had the unique responsibility of being welcomed into a family. He should have respected and loved Carla as his own child. He completely abused that trust, harbouring a perverted infatuation with her, before ultimately killing her.
‘Owens offending ended with the worst possible outcome – the loss of Carla’s life, but the way it began is equally as disturbing. He took innocent childhood photos and made them indecent images.
‘Because of this, Carla’s mum has not only lost her daughter but has had some of her memories of Carla’s childhood, before she met Owens, destroyed too.’
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