Sick fantasist strangled woman he met on Plenty Of Fish before having sex with her dead body

A sick fantasist strangled a young woman to death he met on dating app Plenty Of Fish before taking pictures and having sex with her dead body. Carl Langdell, from Cheshunt, has admitted the murder of Katie Locke at a hotel in Hertfordshire with the details of her horrific murder revealed at St Albans Crown Court on 2 June.

Langdell, 26, who was on medication for anxiety and depression and had in the past received psychiatric help met Locke, 23, from Buckhurst Hill, for the first time on the night she was murdered. He was already serving a suspended sentence for telling a nurse about his sick fantasies and had told health workers he wanted to cut a girl's throat.

The liar had told the history and politics teacher at Cardinal Pole School in Hackney, east London, that he owned his own law firm. The pair had been chatting online for a fortnight and Locke had even texted a friend during the date saying that it was going well.

They had met at an east London bar on Christmas Eve last year before the pair headed to the four star Theobalds Park Hotel in Hertfordshire where he strangled the "beautiful and vibrant" teacher to death. He then took photos of her dead body and sexually assaulted her.

Langdell then dumped her body in a bush close to a skip in the hotel grounds. Prosecutor Ann Evans said according to the Mirror: "At the end of their first date in the early hours of 24 December last year she agreed to go back to a hotel with him, he strangled her in that hotel room and then dumped her body near a skip outside the hotel."

"Katie told another friend that Carl told her he was a lawyer who owned his own firm. Carl Langdell is not a lawyer, nor does he have his own firm, this was a lie. The truth was that over the previous two years he had increasingly suffered from mental illness, which had been marked by periods in psychiatric hospitals."

The court heard how they had left Trafik bar in Old Street at around 1.30am and headed by taxi to the hotel with the "very intoxicated" Langdell vomiting on the way. After forking put for a late check out Langdell called a woman who he had met on another dating site, Tinder, during that phone call he told the woman that he had killed someone but did not say why.

Locke's father found out about the murder after her daughter did not appear home and tracked down Langdell via a friend of Katie's. He turned up at his home to be confronted by Langdell's mother.

She then telephoned her son who declared: "I am a monster" before saying that the strangulation happened during a sex game gone wrong. Mrs Evans added: "He went on to tell his mother that he had strangled her and it had gone too far. He had too much to drink and he didn't want to ruin their Christmas, he was going to tell them after. He claimed it was a sex game, the Crown do not accept this assertion."

A forensic analysis found a use of cocaine, diazepam and drugs used in the treatment of depression and anxiety. Judge Andrew Bright QC will sentence Langdell on Friday 3 June.