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| “ | There's beauty in everyone. Sometimes you have to dig deep to find it. | „ |
| ~ Robert Morten rationalizing his crimes. |
Robert Morten is the main antagonist of the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Svengali". He is a serial killer responsible for the murders of eight women.
He was portrayed by Jared Harris, who also played Professor James Moriarty in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, Mac McGrath in Mr. Deeds, David Robert Jones in Fringe, and Axel Bellman in The Shadow in the North.
Biography[]
Prior to his imprisonment, Morten abducted, tortured, mutilated and killed eight women, believing that he was revealing their "inner beauty" and that his actions are a form of art. When he was caught, he did not even bother denying his guilt and was sentenced to life without parole. During his incarceration, Morten developed a cult following, which only grew when the comic Le Morte was published, portraying a scenario in which Morten was never caught and carried on killing. As a result, his followers sought his freedom by submitting appeals to the court.
After several years, Morten spent his time reading waves of fan mail, he was contacted by Cecilia Strayer, the daughter of a former cellmate, who wanted to know more about her father, who had died in jail when she was a child. Morten convinced her to get an internship at the law firm which defended him, allowing her unrestricted access to him. During her visits, Morten seduced Cecelia, and they had sex in his cell on at least one occasion and she became obsessed with him. However, Morten eventually broke up with her, claiming she didn't give him enough "blood and spatter". He then tells her he would take her back if she killed someone, leading Cecelia to kill and mutilate her friend Tina Snow in order to impress him.
After realizing that her actions meant that Morten could get into further trouble for arranging Snow's death, Cecelia arranged suicide, but was found and saved by the NYPD's Special Victims Unit, who later discovered her connection to Morten and charged her with murder. SVU also arrested Morten's comic writer after he attempted to kill Det. Benson with a pipe bomb and broke into her room, though this only led to them seeing how much of a grip he had on people.
Morten agreed to testify against Cecelia in return for immunity from prosecution for his involvement and a transfer. In court, Morten admitted that he had ordered the death and provoking her by claiming that she was a poor artist. This caused Cecelia to break down and attempt to charge him, where she confessed her love to him but he only responded by cutting ties with her. As a result, the devastated Cecelia was led out while the court erupted into chaos, much to Morten's amusement. The outcome ends up leading to a mistrial and Cecelia being ruled legally insane and institutionalized.
Following the trial, Morten was approached Assistant District Attorney Casey Novak, and gloated that he gave a good performance. Novak responded that like Cecelia, Morten was "going where [he] deserved", as he thought she was backing out but she reveals that she had arranged for him to be transferred to federal prison as agreed. Morten was surprised but that grew when she tells him that he will enjoy ADX Florence, where he would be unable to communicate with his fans ever again and would only be able to leave his cell for an hour every day. This along with the obvious cancellation of his comic meant with time Morten would be forgotten. He was horrified, as he repeated they had a deal. Novak coldly told him that the deal was her "masterpiece", echoing Morten's insistence that his murders were works of art, before leaving Morten to protest that she used him, and it isn’t fair before he is taken into custody.
External links[]
- Robert Morten at the Law & Order Wiki
