Nathan Owens has been convicted of murdering his 19-year-old stepdaughter, Carla Georgescu, at her student accommodation in Preston after travelling more than 100 miles to see her in the early hours.
The 34-year-old was found guilty at Preston Crown Court after jurors deliberated for just over three hours. He was also convicted of grievous bodily harm with intent and will be sentenced on Friday.
Prosecutors said Owens had become sexually fixated with Carla and was motivated by jealousy after learning she planned to travel to Romania to meet a man with whom she had been romantically involved online.
Nicholas Lumley KC told the court that Owens had travelled to the University of Lancashire a day before Carla was due to leave. He allegedly persuaded her to let him into her flat at about 4am on February 4.
Owens did not give evidence or answer police questions, meaning the precise events inside the flat were never fully established. In his closing speech, Mr Lumley asked whether he had treated Carla “like a doll, like one of your effigies” before killing her when she “dared to say no”.
Carla’s body was discovered the following day, which would have been her 20th birthday, after her mother became concerned when she could not reach her. She was found slumped against a wardrobe door with a belt around her neck, and police initially suspected suicide.
That account began to unravel after CCTV showed Owens entering Ribble Hall alone. He had concealed his head beneath a patterned blanket when Carla let him into the building, and was filmed leaving about an hour and a half later with an umbrella and face covering.
He was also wearing Carla’s trainers and carrying two bags. Owens had told police that his wife, Janina, had accompanied him to Preston, but footage showed he had made the journey alone.
After returning to Hartlepool shortly after 8am, he did not tell his wife that he had visited Carla. He later gave her an account that he had gone to Preston to take incontinence pants to her daughter and help tidy the room.
Following the discovery of the body, Owens searched online for information about how police investigate suspicious deaths and wiped his electronic devices, the trial heard.
Investigators later used telematics data from the couple’s Ford Puma to trace his movements on the journey home. Searches around one of the stopping points uncovered Carla’s discarded mobile phone, bloodied bedding and a blood-stained T-shirt.
The court heard that Owens’s behaviour towards Carla had included secretly photographing her in her underwear. Prosecutors also alleged that he had sex with a life-sized effigy dressed in her nightdress, as well as with dolls and toys, and had altered an innocent image of Carla to make it appear sexual.
Mr Lumley described Owens as “depraved” and a “coward”, saying his “dark life” had been hidden from his wife, a psychotherapist who was unaware that he stayed awake obsessing over Carla.
Carla’s mother had last seen her three days before her death at an early birthday meal in Preston. CCTV footage from the dinner showed Owens and Carla looking at their phones and appearing uncomfortable when they were briefly left alone together.
Owens sat silently in the glass-panelled dock as the jury returned its verdict.
