Chilling CCTV footage captures ‘criminology scholar loitering’ behind private coach and her good friend simply minutes earlier than 34-year-old was stabbed to demise on Bournemouth seashore ‘as she tried to defend herself’ 

This is the haunting moment a criminology student lurked behind a personal trainer and her friend just 20 minutes before allegedly creeping up and carrying out a ‘horrifyingly savage’ attack on the pair.

Amie Gray and Leanne Miles were sat together around a fire pit on the sand when CCTV showed a man said to be Nasen Saadi, 20, slowly approaching them from behind and stabbing them both.

Moments before the attack, in newly released clips, the man could be seen lingering in the area behind where they were both sat in Bournemouth, Dorset.

Jurors at Winchester Crown Court, Hampshire, were shown further clips of the moment when Saadi ‘pursued’ the two victims as he walked from the well-lit promenade onto the dark beach.

A man – said to be Saadi – was shown strolling past Mrs Gray and her friend Ms Miles, then 38, sat on the beach before walking on to the sand and then returning along the promenade towards them.

He then ‘loiters’ in the area, going on to the sand and off again before he approached the two victims sat on the beach next to the small fire at 11.38pm.

The man could be seen attacking the two women before one of the pair manages to get on to the promenade and he is seen running across the sand towards her before running away again.

Mrs Gray, 34, suffered 10 knife injuries from a blade between 5cm and 7cm long with ‘a single sharp edge and a finely-squared back edge’. Some cuts may have been inflicted as she held up her arms to defend herself, the court heard.

She was pronounced dead at the scene while Ms Miles suffered 20 injuries but survived the attack on the evening of May 24 after screaming ‘Please stop, I’ve got children’.

Saadi allegedly searched online for weapons as well as ‘busiest beaches’ before settling on Durley Chine Beach where he allegedly attacked Mrs Gray and Ms Miles at random.

At shortly after 11 before the attack, Saadi left the hotel and he could be seen pulling his hood up over his beanie hat as he exited in an attempt to avoid cameras, prosecutor Sarah Jones KC alleged.

The footage shows the man claimed to be Saadi going for walks along the promenade during the evenings of his stay in Bournemouth, which Ms Jones has suggested were ‘recces’ for the fatal attack.

The court heard that Saadi initially booked into a Travelodge hotel in Bournemouth on May 21 before moving to the nearby Silver How hotel on May 23.

On the day of the attack, May 24, the man was shown buying wet wipes and nail clippers at a Superdrug store in Bournemouth town centre before also going for a walk along the sea front to buy an ice cream in the afternoon.

Saadi passed the Marriott hotel and headed towards Durley Chine direction, where the attack was carried out.

It was previously said that he ‘cast a shadow’ when he slowly approached them from behind.

Just two minutes later, Ms Miles could be seen running out onto the lit-up promenade but she was soon pursued by Saadi.

Ms Miles pleaded with Saadi and said ‘Please stop, I’ve got children’. He ran the other way. An alternative clip showed her lying on the sand after Saadi had fled the scene.

After leaving them both to bleed to death, he fled the scene and returned to the Silver How hotel in the city centre.

Mrs Jones KC told the trial: ‘Whether he felt he had accomplished his aims having stabbed both women multiple times and left them to bleed to death, or was moved to mercy on hearing Leanne plead for her life for the sake of her children, or concern that the commotion caused by the attack might lead to his capture if he did not depart, we do not know but the Defendant did depart swiftly.’

The criminology student is accused of using his studies to research how to get away with murder before ‘butchering’ Mrs Gray because he wanted to know what it would be like to take a life.

It was heard the 20-year-old had taken such an ‘interest’ in true crime that his lecturer had once asked him ‘You’re not planning a murder are you?’ when he ‘plied’ her with questions on killing, jurors were told.

The student, from south London, used the internet to search for ‘deliberately offensive-looking weapons’ and researched ‘busiest beaches’ before settling on a location in Bournemouth.

Home Office pathologist Dr Basil Purdue told the court that Mrs Gray died as a result of ‘multiple stab wounds’.

He said the most serious would have required ‘severe force’ to go through the breast bone and caused a wound to the pericardial sac – the bag surrounding the heart – which meant that the heart could not beat properly.

He explained that Mrs Gray suffered a total of 10 ‘passes of a knife and two exit wounds’ which included an injury to her left upper arm which he said went 10cm into the body and cut the brachial artery which could also have been life-threatening.

The pathologist also said that Mrs Gray suffered cuts which might have been defensive injuries as she held up her arms to defend herself.

Dr Purdue said that Ms Miles, now aged 39, had 20 knife injuries, mainly to her back, and suffered a collapsed lung and a punctured liver.

He said that the injuries to both women were likely to have been caused by a knife with a blade of between 5cm and 7cm long with ‘a single sharp edge and a finely-squared back edge’.

He said: ‘Any stab wound is potentially very dangerous, if you stab someone you can cause rapidly life-threatening injuries. Stabbing is a very dangerous method of attack.’

In March, Saadi is said to have researched ‘why is it harder for a killer to be caught if he does it in another town’ and ‘which is the deadliest knife’. The following month, he allegedly carried out online searches for the ‘busiest beaches’ and then the following day looked at ‘whether Bournemouth beach was open at night’ and if sand or pebbles were easiest to run on. 

Two days before the alleged attack, Saadi went to the cinema and watched ‘The Strangers – Chapter 1’ which the prosecutor described as a ‘slasher home invasion movie’ where the male and female leads are both stabbed.

The prosecutor said that Mrs Gray and Ms Miles had been chatting next to a fire to keep warm on the Dorset beach under a full moon when they were targeted by Saadi.

She said: ‘Nasen Saadi, as he walked along that promenade and thought about the culmination of a plan he had worked on for who knows how long but which he had spent the last couple of nights walking through and researching.

‘Nothing fine or glorious in his plans, I’m afraid – nothing of self-improvement or to benefit anyone else.

‘This defendant seems to have wanted to know what it would be like to take life – perhaps he wanted to know what it would be like to make women feel afraid, perhaps he thought it would make him feel powerful, make him interesting to others.

‘Perhaps he just couldn’t bear to see people engaged in a happy normal social interaction and he decided to lash out, to hurt, to butcher.’

Ms Jones added: ‘With purpose, slowly, stealthily and quietly, when he thought no-one would observe him, he hovered at the edges of the promenade, then stepped on to the sand, and walked directly towards the two women with a knife in his hand.

‘In an act horrifying in its savagery and in its randomness he stabbed them both multiple times, chasing after them as they tried to escape or divert him from the other and he continued his attack.

‘He left them on the sand to bleed to death whilst he moved away and tried to disappear back into the shadows, away from the glare of the streetlights or the moonlight and back into anonymity.

‘He got rid of his weapon. He changed his clothes and shoes and got rid of them.’

Ms Jones said that during his university lectures, Saadi would ask questions not related to the subject of the talk.

These included raising queries about self-defence justification for murder, DNA analysis and other forensic evidence, the prosecutor told the court.

She added that a lecturer ‘explained his questions were not relevant to the lecture but there would be police input later in the course and he could save his interest for then.

The lecturer was said to have then followed up with, ‘You’re not planning a murder, are you?’ – to which Saadi did not reply, jurors heard.

Ms Jones said that after Saadi was arrested, he initially declined to answer questions but went on to say that he had an interest in true crime and enjoyed horror movies.

She said that he then admitted he had visited Bournemouth but would not give details of his whereabouts at the time of the killing, while saying he might have suffered a ‘blackout’ or ‘been affected because he had been drinking’.

Ms Jones added: ‘The footage of the attack was played and he stated simply, ‘That’s not me’. He said he had no reason to attack someone for no reason and he wouldn’t attack anyone for no reason.’

The prosecutor added that a search of the defendant’s home by police found a number of knives, which showed his ‘fascination’ with them, as well as latex gloves, a torch and a black balaclava.

Saadi has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mrs Gray and attempted murder of Ms Miles. He pleaded guilty to failing to provide his mobile phone code to police. 

The trial continues.