Harrowing moment 20-year-old woman let ‘obsessed’ stepdad into residence before she was murdered
Warning: this article contains distressing details that some readers may find upsetting.
CCTV footage has been released showing a woman’s stepfather arriving at her university residence, just over an hour before he sexually assaulted and murdered her.
Nathan Owens, 34, from Hartlepool, was found guilty of murdering his stepdaughter, Carla Georgescu, at her university accommodation at Ribble Hall in Preston on the day before her 20th birthday in February.
He then staged the scene to make it appear as if Georgescu had taken her own life.
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Harrowing CCTV footage has recently been released to the public, which shows Owens arriving at the flat in the early hours of 4 February after travelling from Hartlepool, while wrapped in a blanket.
Georgescu let him into the building at around 04:00 GMT after he lied about needing to pick something up. He left the flat an hour-and-a-half later, Preston Crown Court heard.
This was the last time the student was seen alive.
After Owens followed Georgescu to her room, he subjected her to a ‘violent and sexual assault’ before killing her, police said.
After her mum raised the alarm, Georgescu’s body was found in her room on 5 February, which was her 20th birthday.
In the days before she died, Owens had a meal with Georgescu and her mother.
After staging the crime scene to make it look like Georgescu had taken her own life, Owens left her halls via a different route and covered his face with a mask. He carried bags with them that contained evidence, and used Georgescu’s umbrella, as well as wearing her shoes.
He returned home and acted as though nothing had happened and disposed of evidence, the police said.
The pyjama bottoms Georgescu can be seen wearing the CCTV footage when she answered the door, nor the trainers which Owens was seen wearing as he left her halls, have been found.
Her laptop has also never been recovered and was disconnected from her home’s WiFi at 05:19 GMT.
Detectives later found hundreds of pictures of Georgescu on Owens’ laptop. Many of the images had been edited to be sexualised.
The ‘sexually obsessed’ man had also taken a selfie wearing Georgescu’s nightdress, and filmed himself having sex with an effigy which had Georgescu’s clothes on.
Owens denied being connected to Georgescu’s death during police interviews. The police said he had made internet searches, including: "I think the police think I’m guilty."
He did not take to the witness box or offer any other testimony, and he was ultimately convicted by the jury after three hours of deliberation.
Georgescu had her whole life ahead of her; she was an undergraduate student studying clinical psychology and had plans to take postgraduate studies in Romania.
She was described as ‘intelligent, gentle and articulate’, and it has emerged that she was set to to travel to Romania with a friend the day after her body was found.
DI Pete Macdonald said: "Carla was a young woman with her whole life ahead of her, a life that was taken away by someone she should have been able to trust.
"Owens had a despicable, perverted sexual obsession with his stepdaughter, an obsession that ended with him killing her."
He concluded: "No verdict brings Carla back, but I hope that her mum and the rest of her loved ones can feel some sense of justice that the man responsible for taking her future away has been brought to justice."
Owens will be sentenced later today (23 October).
Greg Harris