Forensics student changes plea to admit murder in Dexter-style ‘kill room’

University of Worcester undergraduate Benjamin William Day was arrested wearing a Dexter-style khaki top after inflicting 78 knife wounds on Maria Saceanu and starting to dismember her body, a murder trial was told.

Warning: Some readers may find the contents of this article distressing. 

A forensics student in the UK who was obsessed with US TV drama Dexter has pleaded guilty to the murder of a 24-year-old sex worker whom he lured to a plastic-lined “kill room” set up inside an Airbnb property.

University of Worcester undergraduate Benjamin William Day was arrested wearing a Dexter-style khaki top after inflicting 78 knife wounds on Maria Saceanu and starting to dismember her body, a murder trial was told.

Day, who was 19 at the time of the killing last year and is now 20, changed his plea to guilty after discussions with his barrister on the second day of his trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court.

Opening the British Crown’s case on Monday, prosecutor Rachel Brand KC said the defendant spent several hours preparing the so-called kill room at rented premises in the Tividale area of the West Midlands, around 20 miles from his home in Redditch, Worcestershire.

Day had been expected to claim self-defence, asserting that he set up the room to film a “tribute” to Dexter which he could post on TikTok.

But after an hour-long delay to proceedings on Tuesday, Day returned from the cells to the dock and appeared to smirk as he nodded towards the court clerk and entered a guilty plea.

Day, wearing a dark suit and a maroon patterned tie, was remanded in custody and will be sentenced on December 4.

Addressing Mr Justice Bryan before the trial judge decided to delay sentencing for further psychiatric assessments, defence barrister Gurdeep Garcha KC said of Day: “He is well aware of the nature and inevitability of the sentence that must follow.

“It seems to us that given his age and the absence of (previous) criminal offending, the court would be assisted by a pre-sentence report.” 

The change of plea came around three hours after jurors were shown footage of Day claiming to have been attacked by a “wild dog” or fox.

Jurors were shown footage of police officers helping Day with a hand injury, which was wrapped in duct tape, at the junction of Highview Street and Brewery Street in Dudley.

The trial heard that after causing 78 knife wounds to Ms Saceanu, whom he contacted through a website using a burner phone, Day abandoned the “gruesome task” of dismemberment because he had cut himself at the three-bed Airbnb in Barncroft Road, Tividale.

He then left the house, where he had rented a room for £40, at about 12.30am on December 21, walked some distance away and then called 999 at 12.50am asking for medical help.

On bodycam footage played to jurors, Day could be seen sitting in a police car at around 1.12am and bleeding onto the pavement.

During his conversations with police, Day said he had been going to drink in Dudley and came over to look for a “random girl” in a bar.

Asked by an officer if he had been set up and attacked, Day said he had been injured near a bush by an animal that “might have been a fox”.

Questioned as to where he had got duct tape to wrap around his hand, Day told police it was in his Fiat 500 car, although he could not remember where it was parked.

The trial heard Day was wearing a Dexter-style khaki top when he was arrested at hospital on suspicion of killing Ms Saceanu, who was originally from Romania but lived near the Airbnb property.

Explaining the Crown’s case at the start of what was expected to be a two-week trial, Ms Brand said of Day: “He lured Maria Saceanu to a room that he had rented via Airbnb.

“He had prepared himself to kill her.

“He had planned to dispose of her body without leaving signs of what had happened, and he planned to get away with it.

“But it all went wrong, and he was caught.” Ms Brand said Day was taken to Russell's Hall Hospital in Dudley.

Meanwhile, a resident who had booked a different room in the Airbnb was shocked to see a trail of blood when he went into the property and notified the landlord.

The landlord contacted police and officers found the body of Ms Saceanu, who had been reported missing by her partner’s friend.

Day was arrested on suspicion of murder at 3.42am as he lay on a bed in hospital, the court heard.

As part of his plan, Day had placed his victim’s possessions into a black bin bag, ready for disposal.

Outlining evidence against Day, Ms Brand told the court that on November 18 last year, he had made a “shopping list” on his phone of things that were required for the killing, including knives, scissors, a mask, an apron, disposable gloves, plastic sheeting, duct tape, a staple gun, a T-shirt, trousers, cleaning chemicals, microscope slides, a pipette, and “hefties” – a word used by Americans to describe heavy-duty black bin bags.

All the items on the list were found at the scene, she added.