Forensics student guilty of murdering woman in Dexter-inspired 'kill room' in Tividale

Benjamin Day, 20, admitted stabbing Maria Saceanu 78 times in a plastic-lined Airbnb room modelled on the TV show Dexter. He faces a mandatory life sentence.

University student pleads guilty to Dexter-copycat murder at West Midlands Airbnb

A University of Worcester forensics student has pleaded guilty to the murder of a 24-year-old woman he lured to a plastic-lined Airbnb room he had modelled on a "kill room" from the US television show Dexter, bbc.co.uk reports.

Benjamin Day, 20, of Yeadon Close, Redditch, Worcestershire, changed his plea on the second day of his trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court to admit killing Maria Saceanu, a Romanian woman who had been working as a sex worker. She sustained 78 knife wounds.

West Midlands Police have released bodycam footage recorded in the hours after the killing, showing Day lying to officers about the nature of a serious wound to his hand. Day told police he had been bitten by a wild animal — "might have been a fox," he is heard saying — as he flagged down officers near the junction of Highview Street and Brewery Street in Dudley at around 12:50 GMT on 21 December.

In a second clip, Day is seen at Russells Hall Hospital in Dudley wearing a khaki top resembling clothing worn by the Dexter character. He was arrested there at 03:42. "I have got four fingers thankfully," he is heard saying while lying on a hospital bed.

Plastic-lined room and a 999 call

The court heard Day had rented an Airbnb property in Tividale, in the West Midlands, and prepared the room with plastic sheeting before luring Saceanu there. He left the property at approximately 12:30 GMT, walked some distance away, and then called 999 requesting medical assistance.

During his conversations with officers that night, Day claimed he had driven to the Dudley area to look for a "random girl" in a bar. He also falsely told police he could not remember where he had parked his car — which was outside the address where Saceanu's body remained.

Day had cut open his own hand while attempting to dismember the body after the killing.

'Meticulous' planning, obsessive personality

Detective Inspector Matt Marston, from West Midlands Police's Major Crime Team and the officer who led the investigation, described Day as having "an obsessive personality" who had "become obsessed with the character Dexter."

"He planned this murder in meticulous detail," Marston said. "It was a pre-planned brutal attack on a defenceless woman lured to the room he had rented. The details of this case shocked experienced officers and our thoughts continue to go out to the heartbroken family of Maria at this time."

Jonathan Roe of the Crown Prosecution Service said Day had initially attempted to shift blame onto Saceanu, alleging she had attacked him first. "The evidence presented by the prosecution exposed those claims for the lies they were, and he has rightly been forced to accept responsibility for her murder," Roe said.

Roe added that forensic evidence and pathology had been central to securing the prosecution's case, and that Day's guilty plea on day two of the trial had spared Saceanu's family "the trauma of a prolonged trial process."

Mandatory life sentence expected

Day has been remanded in custody and is due to be sentenced on 4 December, when he will face a mandatory life sentence.

Source: The Sun