A man obsessed with Jack the Ripper strangled and stabbed a blond mother of two before scrawling the word “Jack” on her dead body, a court has heard.
Casey Scott took a photograph of his naked victim as “a morbid trophy,” leaving her body on the bathroom floor of his studio apartment — with the 29-year-old man now jailed for a minimum of 19 years.
The court heard Scott had booked Lenuta Haidemac, 28, for a $187-an-hour sex session before brutally killing her with a 10-centimeter (4-inch) blade and leaving her “degraded” body in his apartment in Skegness, Lincolnshire, on the east coast of England.
Having researched the notorious serial killer Jack the Ripper around the time he killed her, Scott then fled — going on the run for three days before being tracked down by cops.
Judge Michael Heath slammed the “brutal” murder as he jailed Scott for almost two decades during the hearing at Lincoln Crown Court, saying the man had committed an “evil act.”
Prosecutor Sarah Knight said Haidemac had been “vulnerable,” with the woman lured to the home by Scott, who had no intention to pay her.
“Once inside his flat, sexual activity having taken place between them, he strangled her and subjected her to a violent knife attack,” Knight said.
“He then degraded her naked dead body still further by scrawling the word ‘Jack’ across her abdomen, a morbid reference to his internet search concerning Jack the Ripper.
“Knowing what he had done, he then went to ground, trying to escape justice before the police were able to track him down.”
Haidemac was Romanian and lived 20 miles away in Boston with her partner, Octavian Selistean, and their two sons, then ages 3 and 13.
Working as an escort, Haidemac had advertised her services online, where Scott tracked her down and arranged to meet her in July, with the man buying four cans of lager, chocolate and biscuits just before Haidemac’s partner drove her to the meeting.
Selistean waited to hear from the young woman to make sure she had arrived safely at the ground-floor apartment — receiving a text message at 10:32 p.m.
He never heard from her again, and alerted police the next day.
Knight said: “She was never to be heard or seen alive after that time by anyone other than Scott.”
Police searched the home after Selistean’s call, finding a used condom that matched Haidemac’s DNA with indications that the pair had sex on the double bed.
Knight said: “On the pillow was found a bloodstained knife and in the shower room they found the body of Lenuta Haidemac on the floor. She was already dead and cold to touch, indicating she had been dead for some time. She was naked and partly covered by a duvet. She was lying on her back.”
The court heard that she had been strangled and stabbed twice in the neck, with lines across her throat and two puncture wounds beneath her nipples.
The court heard Scott left behind his mobile phone when he fled.
Knight added: “Upon analysis a thumbnail image was found on it showing that he must have taken a picture depicting the victim’s dead body as she lay on his bathroom floor, as if to record the event as some sort of keepsake or trophy of what he had achieved.
“From checks of Scott’s internet activity at around the time of Lenuta’s death, it appears that he had been researching the notorious murderer Jack the Ripper on the internet.”
Scott eventually was arrested 20 miles from the murder scene after being found in a hedgerow in a disused area of Boston.
The court heard Scott had no previous convictions and only one caution for shoplifting in 2009, but following the murder, police traced two other young women whom Scott had attempted to strangle.
On the day of the murder, Scott also sent a Facebook message to a friend about a prostitute coming over. When the pal warned Scott he would not get away without paying, Scott messaged back: “It doesn’t matter. I’ll sort it.”
Defense lawyer Andrew Jefferies said that while it was accepted that Scott had “degraded” Haidemac’s body, there was no evidence he had researched Jack the Ripper until after the killing.
“The killing appears to have happened at the time she was to leave, 11:30 p.m.,” Jefferies told the court.
“The search for Jack the Ripper on the internet was not until 11.49 p.m. and the photo a minute later.”
At an earlier hearing, Scott, who had lived in the apartment five years, admitted murdering Haidemac last July.
Passing a life sentence on Scott, Heath ordered him to serve a minimum of 19 years’ imprisonment before he can be considered for release by the parole board.
Heath told Scott, who appeared in court by video link from prison, that it was a “brutal” murder.
“Her life was brutally ended by you, by strangulation and a vicious knife attack, followed by the degradation of her body.
“Your evil act left Ms. Haidemac dead and deprived two young children of their mother.”
The judge added that the killing was aggravated by Scott’s behavior afterward: “You took a photograph of her naked body as some kind of morbid keepsake or trophy of what you had done.”
Haidemac’s partner and two children returned to Romania after the murder.
In a victim statement, Selistean said: “She did not deserve this, she must have been so frightened at the end.”
Speaking after the hearing, Detective Chief Inspector Diane Coulson, who investigated the murder, said: “Scott is clearly a dangerous individual and he is now off the streets for 19 years.
“But it will be very difficult for Lenuta’s partner and her children to come to terms with. They have lost part of their family.”