For millions of viewers, the hit American crime series Dexter has long been a gripping way to unwind after a demanding day.
Yet a disturbing minority have taken the show far beyond the screen, treating its fictional world as a blueprint for real-life violence.
In the space of just 70 days, two British murderers who modelled themselves on the programme’s central character, Dexter Morgan, have been found guilty of horrific killings.
Benjamin Day, a 20-year-old forensics student, admitted this week to killing 24-year-old Maria Saceanu. Prosecutors said he lured her to a plastic-covered “kill room” at a West Midlands Airbnb, drawing inspiration from his fixation with the television series.
His admission followed the conviction of another alleged Dexter imitator, 40-year-old James Desborough, who was found guilty of murdering and dismembering two men at a secluded woodland cabin in Cornwall.
Since 2009, four other killers — Steven Miles, Mark Howe, Canadian filmmaker Mark Twitchell, American teenager Andrew Conley and Norwegian Havard Nyflot — have also been convicted in cases described as being influenced by Dexter.
First broadcast almost two decades ago, the series centres on Dexter Morgan, a blood-spatter expert working for the police by day who secretly operates as a vigilante serial killer at night, taking elaborate steps to conceal his crimes.
Criminologists have warned that the show — which has since spawned three spin-off productions — may offer some dangerous viewers what resembles a “how-to script” for carrying out copycat killings.
Benjamin Day was arrested wearing clothing associated with Dexter after Maria Saceanu was killed in a plastic-lined “kill room”
Michael C. Hall plays Dexter Morgan, whose khaki shirt was reportedly copied by Day before the killing
Canadian filmmaker Mark Twitchell and British teenager Steven Miles were among those linked to Dexter-inspired killings
Day’s confession came 70 days after James Desborough, pictured, was convicted over a double murder described as Dexter-inspired
Alex Iszatt, a behavioural criminologist, told the Daily Mail that Dexter can give certain offenders a ritual to follow. “They can fully become him: follow the same code and principles, wear the same clothes, and use the same methods of killing and disposing of bodies,” she said.
“Dexter provides a usable identity. They are ready to perform to an imagined audience. They are Dexter.”
In the drama, Dexter works as a blood-spatter analyst for Miami Metro Police, while secretly pursuing his own murderous version of vigilante justice after dark.
His crimes are controlled by a strict set of principles taught by his adoptive father, Harry Morgan, and known as “The Code”. Dexter is supposed to target only confirmed killers who escaped justice — and must ensure he is never exposed.
The character describes an overpowering urge to kill as his “Dark Passenger”. Before acting, he carries out detailed research on potential victims, using information available through his police connections.
His signature method involves covering a room in plastic sheeting to contain blood and forensic evidence. He also displays images of his victim’s crimes, forcing them to confront the harm they have caused.
Dexter then kills the victim, cuts up the body and disposes of the remains far out at sea.
“What makes Dexter particularly useful to a violent personality is that he provides a justification for killing,” Iszatt said.
‘You’re not a monster with uncontrollable urges; you’re a vigilante, with standards, and the people you kill deserve it. It doesn’t matter if they happen to be your mother, brother or girlfriend.
‘There’s something inherently appealing about Dexter’s dual identity; he is a dark version of the superhero fantasy, respectable and ordinary by day, secretly powerful and dangerous by night. He is Batman.
‘For someone fascinated by control, violence and getting away with things, the fantasy is not simply being a killer, it’s doing what everyone else can’t, while remaining invisible.’
This week, the series was thrust back into the spotlight after University of Worcester student Ben Day set up a copycat Dexter ‘kill room’ and violently stabbed Maria Saceanu 78 times to death before attempting to dismember her.
He changed into a Dexter-style khaki top and prepared the ‘kill room’ as a ‘tribute’ to the TV series.
Dexter fanatic Mark Howe (pictured) was jailed for at least 21-and-a-half years for murdering his mother, Katrina Wardle, at their home in Leicester in 2014
Andrew Conley strangled his brother to death. He too was obsessed with the US crime series Dexter
The murderer, who had changed his university course from journalism to study forensics and applied biology, also had a ‘shopping list’ of items required for the killing, including plastic sheeting, a staple gun, cleaning chemicals and microscopic slides.
Police said Day ‘had an obsessive personality and had become obsessed with the character Dexter’.
Listing ‘similarities’ between the death and the TV series, prosecutor Rachel Brand KC told jurors: ‘Dexter Morgan works as a forensic scientist in a police department – and the broad premise of the programme is that he is a serial killer who knows how to cover his tracks.
‘As you know the defendant changed his university course… to study applied biology and forensics.
‘He had changed into ‘Dexter’ clothing before Maria Saceanu arrived at the house.
‘In the TV series Dexter prepares a ‘kill room’ when carrying out his attacks, lined with plastic sheeting which he fixes using a staple gun or duct/gaffer tape.
‘And this is exactly how the defendant had prepared the room.
‘Dexter wears an apron, a plastic visor and gloves when killing his victims – all such items were found in the bedroom.’
Other similarities with the TV series included a canvas roll containing knives found in the bedroom, the dismemberment attempts and microscope slides thought to be a ‘trophy’ from the killing, Ms Brand said.
Ms Iszatt, a former crime scene investigator, said the ‘kill room’ is particularly significant because it turns murder into a ritual of control.’
‘On the show it’s clean, sterile and methodical; the plastic sheeting and protective clothing are presented as solutions to practical problems,’ she added.
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‘For someone interested in forensics, it also feeds a fantasy of competence: not simply being capable of killing, but being clever enough to outsmart the police afterwards.’
Dexter killer Day lying on a hospital trolley with his left hand heavily bandaged where he is arrested on suspicion of murder
Dexter was aired for the first time nearly 20 years ago to the day and has a cult following
Maria Saceanu, 24, was brutally murdered by Dexter fanatic Benjamin Day
The University of Worcester, where Day studied, boasts of ‘state-of-the-art research labs and dedicated crime scene simulation house provides immersive settings for working through real-world scenarios’.
They tell prospective students: ‘You’ll get to use industry-standard geophysical equipment for detecting concealed burials, crime scene investigation kits and specialist fingerprint-enhancing tools.’
A spokesman for the university said it was ‘deeply shocked and saddened by this terrible crime’.
Ms Iszatt said the clothing Day was wearing was ‘not merely practical, but a uniform’.
‘Putting them on marks the transition from the ordinary person into ‘the other’ – the forensic-genius killer – creating a psychological distance from the act and making the fantasy feel more real’.
Day’s guilty plea came just 70 days after another Dexter fanatic James Desborough was convicted of murdering homeless men Claudio Aquilino, 57, and Daniel Coleman, 43, followed by his prison cellmate, Steven Kempster, 65, while awaiting trial.
The former builder befriended the two vulnerable men at a homeless shelter, before killing and dismembering them at his woodland cabin near Sticker, Cornwall. He used their bank cards and made journeys to create an illusion they were still alive.
Desborough was present at various points during police searches for the bodies and mentioned casually to a forensic biologist on the scene that he ‘particularly enjoyed the dismemberment scenes’ in Dexter.
Prosecutor Ahmed Hossain KC told jurors: ‘That is a series which involves scenes of dismemberment and disposal of bodies.
‘There are many, many people who are fans of the television programme Dexter but… when you consider that comment by Mr Desborough together with the fact that two dismembered bodies were found on his land, that the comment takes on a particular significance.’
This is at least one of seven Dexter-inspired killings in the last 17 years.
In 2014, British teenager Steven Miles, who was obsessed with the TV serial killer, was jailed for at least 25 years for murdering and dismembering his 17-year-old girlfriend Elizabeth Thomas.
Miles’s trial heard that he had a fixation with horror movies and wanted to copy the actions of Dexter Morgan.
The same year, Mark Howe, then 21, was jailed for at least 21-and-a-half years for murdering his mother, Katrina Wardle, at their home in Leicester.
He stabbed her more than 53 times in the face, mouth, neck, chest and arms after a row over his cannabis smoking. The judge described the attack as ‘akin to torture’.
It later emerged that Howe had been secretly sending his friends text messages about hating his mother and began stabbing the punch bag in his bedroom while also becoming obsessed with Dexter.
‘He was a fanatic for the programme,’ the victim’s husband, Kris Wardle, later revealed. ‘I mean, Dexter is a serial killer.’
Howe had used a photo of Dexter with a blood-splattered face as his own Facebook profile picture and had searched ‘Dexter’s kill knife’ before carrying out the murder.
In 2008, two years after the series first aired, Canadian film-maker Mark Twitchell murdered Johnny Altinger, 38, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and dismembered him after luring him to his death on a dating website, Plenty of Fish.
Twitchell was dubbed the ‘Dexter Killer’ due to his obsession with the show and its lead character.
At the time, Michael C Hall, the actor who played Dexter, denied the show glamourised killers.
‘I would hope that people’s appreciation was more than some sort of fetishization with the kill scenes,’ he said.
Referencing Twitchell, he said: ‘I wouldn’t stop making Dexter because someone was fascinated by it only in that way. I try to tell myself that their fixated nature would have done it one way or the other, but it seems that Dexter had something to do with it. It’s horrifying.’
In May 2013, it was reported that Twitchell had bought a TV for his prison cell, where he would catch up on every Dexter episode he had missed.
In 2010, American teenager Andrew Conley was handed a life sentence for strangling his ten-year-old brother to death in Indianapolis. He strangled him for 20 minutes in the kitchen before wrapping his brother’s head in two plastic bags and dumping the body.
Conley told police he had fantasised about killing and a few weeks before, he told his girlfriend that he wanted to be just like Dexter.
Also in 2010, 26-year-old Faiza Ashraf was kidnapped, murdered and buried in a shallow grave in Asker.
During the investigation, one of the killers – Havard Nyflot – claimed he had been inspired by Dexter and had decided the victim was a ‘bad person’ who deserved punishment.
Nyflot and his co-defendant were jailed for 18 and 19 years respectively.
Ms Iszatt said Dexter ‘gives vulnerable individuals a language for explaining their own violence’.
‘The narrative of the ‘Dark Passenger’ presents the violent part of Dexter as something that exists within him and demands expression.
‘For someone already experiencing violent impulses, that can become a convenient way of understanding and separating themselves: the violent part of me is not really me; it is something that happens to me.
‘The show doesn’t explain why these people wanted to kill – they have pre-existing psychology, fantasies and circumstances – but it provides a language, an identity and a practical template through which those existing impulses are expressed.’
Paramount, which owns Showtime Networks (the original Dexter producer), has been approached for comment.