A 19-year-old university student was murdered in her flat on campus by her stepfather after he developed a 'dangerous sexual obsession' with her, a court heard today.

Carla Georgescu's body was found on February 5, which would have been her 20th birthday, at Ribble Hall, a student accommodation block on the University of Lancashire campus in Preston.

The second year clinical psychology student, originally from Romania, was allegedly strangled and murdered by her stepfather Nathan Owens, 34.

He is said to have driven through the night from the family home, possibly motivated by 'sexual jealousy' after discovering she was about to meet up with a man with whom she had struck up a romantic online relationship.

Preston Crown Court heard how Owens became 'sexually fixated' with Carla after marrying her mother Janina.

The pair had moved to the UK when Carla was 12, after Janina had separated from her daughter's father.

The prosecution allege that Owens drove from Hartlepool in the early hours of February 4 and attacked Carla in her student flat.

Her body was discovered by concerned university staff the following day in what jurors were told was a 'disturbing scene'.

Carla was found slumped against a wardrobe door in a near-seated position, with injuries to her face and a leather belt 'drawn tightly' around her neck.

Nicholas Lumley KC, prosecuting, said: 'Her death was the culmination, the end point, of weeks, months and perhaps years of a one-sided sexual obsession.

'And it was the beginning of a complex murder investigation, which led to his door in Hartlepool.

'It was he who was sexually fixated on Carla and it was he, Nathan Owens, who had killed Carla.'

Owens is said to have concocted a story about visiting Carla's flat to collect her mother's purse, which she had supposedly left during a previous visit a few days earlier.

But Owens did not tell his wife about the journey, the jury heard, and arrived alone before entering at around 4am and leaving 90 minutes later. 

Owens parked his car ‘some distance’ from the halls’ car park and covered himself with a blanket when he arrived, it is alleged.

But when he left her accommodation he was ‘shielding’ himself with an umbrella and wearing a face-mask and Carla’s trainers, while carrying several bags.

Carla’s mother raised the alarm when she could not contact her daughter, with police and university staff going to her room and finding her body.

But on seeing the belt, which was attached to the wardrobe handle, they ‘naively’ and wrongly believed she had hanged herself.

Mr Lumley said forensic examination of the scene and further investigation suggested there was ‘more to it’ and her head was in a different position to those who take their own life.

A post-mortem also revealed Carla had sustained two heavy blows to her head, wounds to her cheek caused by a knife or other sharp object, and cuts and bruises to her mouth and nose.

Her hands were heavily bloodstained where she had attempted to defend herself from blows with a knife, and she had sustained sexual injuries.

The jury heard how sex toys and Owens’ DNA were found at the scene.

Mr Lumley said ‘some form of grievous sexual activity’ had taken place which was ‘hardly surprising’ given Owens’ sexual obsession with her.

Owens allegedly later dumped items - including blood-stained clothes, more sex toys and Carla’s bedding - in an attempt to cover his tracks.

When Owens was later arrested by police, he made a ‘fleeting’ denial that he had anything to do with her death but said nothing more, the jury heard.

He allegedly took photos of Carla without her knowledge, focusing on her bottom, part of an 'escalating pattern' in his 'sexual fascination' with her.

He filmed himself having sex with her dolls and toys, one of which was a life-sized 'effigy' that he'd clothed in her nightdress, and he manipulated an innocent image of her so it appeared sexual, the prosecution added.

Mr Lumley said that Owens developed a 'wholly improper and dangerously entrenched sexual obsession' with Carla which drove him to visit her that day.

He said Owens had learned that Carla had struck up a romantic online relationship with a young man from Romania, whom she had yet to meet, and was due to travel with a friend to meet him in person the next day.

Mr Lumley suggested that 'sexual jealousy' and the fact Owens 'didn't want her to be romantically involved with someone else' may have motivated him.

The jury heard that although Carla had recently expressed to a counsellor that she'd had suicidal thoughts some years ago, she had 'absolutely no intention' of harming herself.

Friends and medical staff also did not have concerns for her, while her mother found her behaviour 'normal' in the days before she died.

Owens denies charges of murder, intentional strangulation and grievous bodily harm with intent.

The trial continues.