Man admits murdering teenage Canadian girlfriend he met on dating app

An Essex man has admitted murdering his 19-year-old girlfriend who he met on a dating app.

Jack Sepple, 23, on Wednesday morning at Chelmsford Crown Court pleaded guilty to the murder of 19-year-old Ashley Wadsworth.

The Canadian was pronounced dead at an address in Tennyson Road in Chelmsford, Essex, on 1 February.

An inquest hearing was told that she died of “stab wounds to the chest”.

Ms Wadsworth, originally from Vernon, British Colombia, moved to Chelmsford in November 2021, she wrote on Facebook.

Earlier this year, she posted photos online of her “amazing trip to London”, where she had been sightseeing.

Her aunt Shawna Wadsworth told The Standard: “Ashley was and is unforgettable. She was a beautiful flower amongst a garden full of weeds and she grew stronger, taller and more stunning with each season.

“She was so amazing, I babysat her and her sister every morning before school and we’d play hair dressers.

“Unforgettable, that’s the song that comes in to mind every time I think of her.”

She added: “I’m sorry [Sepple] came into her life, he’s nothing to me. I won’t waste my time on thinking of him when I can be thinking about her.”

Paying tribute, great aunt Tova Wadsworth said that Ashley was on the “trip of a lifetime”.

She said: “Ashley was a beautiful young lady and full of love and kindness for all in her life.

“This was a trip of a lifetime... Nothing of this makes any sense. Her family is heartbroken and struggles to understand.”

Ashley was described as a “woman of great faith” as she joined the Church of the Latter-day Saints aged 18.

Fellow churchgoer Daniel Seaman said: “She was in England to live with her boyfriend, she was excited to live abroad and she always wanted to get out of the small town life in Vernon, BC.”

Ashley was due to fly home just two days after her death.

Christopher Paxton QC, for Sepple, said that 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 the defendant in custody until a date to be fixed administratively, when he will be sentenced.