Ashley Wadsworth: Boyfriend admits murdering Canadian girlfriend visiting UK
Jack Sepple, 23, pleaded guilty at Chelmsford Crown Court to the murder of 19-year-old
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A man has admitted the murder of a Canadian teenager he met on an online dating app.
Jack Sepple, 23, pleaded guilty at Chelmsford Crown Court to the murder of 19-year-old Ashley Wadsworth.
Ms Wadsworth was pronounced dead at an address in Tennyson Road, Chelmsford, Essex, on 1 February.
An inquest hearing was told she died of “stab wounds to the chest”.
Ms Wadsworth had met her boyfriend, Sepple, through an online dating app and travelled to the UK late last year.
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In a brief hearing at Chelmsford Crown Court on Wednesday, Sepple’s barrister said a psychiatrist had indicated the defendant was fit to plead.
Christopher Paxton QC, for Sepple, said the “issue of fitness is now resolved” and requested that the defendant be asked to enter a plea.
The court clerk read the single charge of murder and Sepple, standing in the secure dock in a long white sleeved top and with tattoos on his face and hand, replied: “I’m guilty.”
Judge Christopher Morgan told Sepple: “By your plea of guilty to murder there’s only one sentence that can be passed and that’s a life sentence.”
He remanded Sepple in custody until a date to be fixed administratively when he will be sentenced.
Ms Wadsworth, originally from Vernon, British Columbia, moved to Chelmsford on 12 November 2021, she wrote on Facebook.
She is said to have flown to the UK as a “birthday present” to meet Mr Sepple on what her family described as “a trip of a lifetime”.
The teenager posted several photos of the couple smiling together on days out in Essex and London, including at tourist spots Buckingham Palace and the Tower of London.
In a post on 11 January, she wrote: “All the photos (more coming) of my amazing trip to London with Jack and his parents for his birthday! So thankful for them.”
On 30 January, just two days before she was killed, Ms Wadsworth changed her profile picture to a close-up of herself and Mr Sepple together.
The teenager had been due to fly home just days after she was found stabbed to death at a property in Tennyson Road, Chelmsford.
Ms Wadsworth’s 18-year-old cousin Kali has now revealed the victim’s family paid for a plane ticket back to Canada after her sister Hailey allegedly saw Sepple beat her on a FaceTime call.
The relative also claimed Sepple had been possessive and logged Ms Wadsworth out of her social media accounts.
She told the Mail Online: “He was going through her social media.
“The reason this entire fight started from the beginning was because he had seen an old chat where she flirted with somebody.
“He freaked out over it and Ashley was on FaceTime with Hailey and she watched him just start beating her.
“Then [Hailey] reached out and tried to get her an earlier plane ticket. He had logged into all her social medias [sic], deleted all her posts and changed all her passwords and smashed her phone.”
Ms Wadsworth was found dead after Essex Police responded to calls from neighbours reporting a disturbance at a block of flats at about 4pm.
Emergency responders fought to save the 19-year-old’s life but she was pronounced dead at the scene.
Sepple was arrested at the scene and later charged with her murder.
Ms Wadsworth’s family previously paid tribute to a “kind” and “beautiful” woman, who was “fiercely loving and loyal to her family and friends”.
In a statement, her relatives celebrated her “spontaneous, witty, kind personality” and remembered her “unforgettable laugh”.
The family said they admired the teenager’s sense of adventure and that she had travelled extensively within Canada, as well as to Mexico, California and England.
She spoke three languages – English, French and Spanish – and travelling “encouraged her love of language”, they said.
The family said she dreamed of becoming a lawyer, strived for good grades, and had been accepted at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, British Colombia.