Steven said his alter ego – named ‘Ed’ – had told him to kill his girlfriend (Picture: INS)

A teenage fan of the series ‘Dexter’ has been jailed after killing and cutting up his girlfriend in a bid to emulate the TV serial killer.

Steven Miles, from Oxted, Surrey, was said to ‘idolise’ the title character from hit TV show ‘Dexter’, a police forensics officer and serial killer who only murders ‘bad’ people.

And in a horrifying attempt to emulate his hero, Steven, then 16, stabbed his girlfriend Elizabeth Thomas in the back and head before using saws and tools from his father’s tree surgeon business to cut up her body and place them in bin bags.

Judge Christopher Critchlow, sentencing the teen to 25 years at Guildford Crown Court, said it was ‘hard for the court to remain unemotional’.


‘Really funny and really kind’: Elizabeth defended her boyfriend as his behaviour grew increasingly disturbing (Picture: INS)

‘[Elizabeth’s family’s] lives have been changed forever, it’s difficult to find the right words to describe the enormity of what you did to an innocent girl of 17-and-a-half,’ he said.



‘You decided at the age of 16 you had to kill somebody, you chose Elizabeth Thomas who tragically befriended you and who had stood up for you when people described you as different.

‘It’s chilling to read that you described her on occasion as your ‘project’.’

Steven, who has been diagnosed as autistic, told his family he had an alter ego called ‘Ed’ who had given him instructions to kill his girlfriend, telling his sister ‘Ed made me do something bad’ after committing the grisly murder.

Steven was said to have ‘idolised’ TV serial killer Dexter Morgan (Picture: AP)

But psychiatrists agreed that Steven was neither schizophrenic nor psychotic in any other way and therefore did not have a defence of diminished responsibility.

Steven’s parents Emma and David had referred him to mental health services after he began self-harming and hearing ‘Ed’ in April 2012.

Even after his behaviour grew increasingly disturbing, Elizabeth – described as ‘really funny and really kind’ by friends – had told classmates she was ‘fighting for him.’