A transgender woman was hacked to death with broken bottles and knives after a four-day sex and drugs binge, a court heard. Naomi Hersi met Jesse McDonald, 25, on a swingers site where he asked for “edgy, risky sex” before allegedly killing her in a hotel room.
He is later said to have called girlfriend Natalia Darkowska, 18, to help him clear up.
McDonald also allegedly called his mum to admit stabbing the Somalian “in a frenzy” in March. He claims Naomi, 36, of North West London, threatened to kill him.
The Old Bailey heard that “bright and articulate” McDonald had met his victim when he went looking for excitement online and found her profile on a website called Fabswingers.com.
After the killing he got bags and cleaning products before contacting his girlfriend, Natalia Darkowska, 18, who joined him in the attempted clean-up, the jury was told.
Mark Heywood QC, prosecuting, said McDonald had planned to dispose of the body, but the victim was found half naked, partly covered by a rug on the bathroom floor. “Each was thinking only of themselves and each other – without a care for the deceased, whom they believed was unlikely, because of her lifestyle, to be missed,” Heywood said.
McDonald denies murder between 14-18 March 2018, while he and Darkowska both deny perverting the course of justice between 15-18 March the same year.
The court heard that McDonald then contacted others, including his girlfriend at the time, Darkowska, whom he had also met online and who was living with her family, from Poland, in Trowbridge, Wiltshire.
“His girlfriend, the second defendant, travelled to him and joined in with him at this stage of the attempted clean up,” said Mr Heywood. “Once she understood what had to be done, she went to buy the necessary things and tried to help and support him through it.”
The trial continues.