A forensics student at the University of Worcester who was obsessed with US TV drama Dexter has pleaded guilty to the murder of a sex worker who he lured to a plastic-lined “kill room” set up inside an Airbnb property.
Benjamin Day, 20, pleaded guilty to the murder of Maria Saceanu in December 2025 during the second day of his murder trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Tuesday (October 6).
Day, who was 19 at the time of the killing 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 Crown’s case on Monday (October 5), prosecutor Rachel Brand KC said the defendant spent several hours preparing the so-called kill room at rented premises in Oldbury, West Midlands, around 20 miles from his home in Yeadon Close, Redditch.
The jury was told Day caused 78 knife wounds to 24-year-old sex worker Ms Saceanu, who he contacted through a website using a burner phone, between her arrival at the property at 10.20pm on December 20 and 12.30am on December 21, when he was seen leaving the property.
Wolverhampton Crown Court (Image: Google)
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.
READ MORE: Suspect spotted riding off on a stolen motorbike as police hunt for person
He abandoned the “gruesome task” of dismemberment because he cut himself, instead throwing the burner phone away and calling 999 at around 12.50am
During the second day of the trial, jurors were then shown bodycam footage of Day 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”.
READ MORE: Man who destroyed custody cell among the latest Worcester cases heard in court
During the video recordings from two officers’ cameras, Day said of the animal: “It was like a kind of brown orangey colour.
“I was by a bush, and it jumped out at me.”
After an hour-long delay to proceedings, 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.
