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Bournemouth seashore assassin touched himself as he requested jail officer how well-known he was

Nasen Saadi, 21, has been jailed for a minimum of 39 years for the murder of Amie Gray and the attempted murder of Leanne Miles on Bournemouth beach in July this year

Criminology student Nasen Saadi was jailed for life
He touched himself sexually while he asked a female police officer how famous he would be (Image: PA)

A student who stabbed a woman to death on Bournemouth beach because he “wanted to know what it would be like to make women feel afraid” sexually touched himself infront of a female prison officer, his trial heard.

Nasen Saadi, 21, has been sentenced to a minimum of 39 years behind bars for the murder of Amie Gray and the attempted murder of Leanne Miles.

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The court heard that Saadi, a criminology student, meticulously planned the attacks, motivated by a twisted desire to instil fear in women. He had even sought advice from his lecturers on how to evade detection for murder and researched the most suitable location for his crimes, including the type of beach that would facilitate a quick getaway.

Nasen Saadi court case
Saadi wanted to make women afraid (Image: PA Media)

During his trial at Winchester Crown Court, it emerged that Saadi would often wear headphones in lectures before posing unsettling questions to his teachers about how to commit murder and use self-defence as a justification for crimes, topics that were not even covered in the lesson.

One lecturer, Dr Lisa-Maria Reiss, found his queries so alarming that she asked him directly: “You are not planning a murder, are you?” The court also heard that Saadi held misogynistic views, describing women as “weaker” than men, reports the Mirror.

Furthermore, Pavandeep Singh Aneja, a special police officer who attended a Q&A session in Saadi’s class, recalled that Saadi had asked: “What are your thoughts of females as police officers?” Additionally, the Metropolitan Police had received a stalking allegation against Saadi just three months prior to the fatal attack.

Amie Gray, 34,
Amie Gray was murdered by Saadi as she sat on the beach(Image: PA)

Saadi also engaged in a lewd act in front of a female prison officer while in his cell, asking about the notoriety of the case. Although the prosecution, led by Sarah Jones KC, sought to present this incident as a possible motive for the attacks, the judge deemed it prejudicial and inadmissible as evidence.

However, during the trial, Jones posited that Saadi’s motivation for attacking Gray and Miles stemmed from a twisted desire to experience the act of murder and instill fear in women. She said: “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.”

Jones also said that Saadi’s actions might have been driven by an inability to tolerate others’ happiness, leading him to lash out and cause harm. In her prepared remarks for the sentencing hearing, she described the murder as “premeditated” and highlighted Saadi’s misogyny as a possible motive, citing “clear evidence” of his difficulties with women and misogynistic tendencies.

knife
Saadi had a growing knife collection(Image: PA)

Charles Sherrard KC, defending, said: “He is a social misfit, someone who had hardly any friends at school, never had a girlfriend and seemed to be somebody who was avoided rather than somebody’s mate. The fact of that was to provide him with significantly low esteem and general sense of inadequacy.”

Sherrard explained that Saadi found an outlet in horror films and developed an obsession with the minds of psychopaths, fueled by a deep-seated anger towards society for his perceived ostracization.

Elaborating further, Sherrard remarked: “Infamy became a valid goal in itself. Without using the words of a psychologist, without anything from a thesaurus, what it comes down to, in the words of the defendant, ‘I never got noticed when I did a good thing, people have only noticed when I did a bad thing’, and that’s perhaps the nearest one can get to an explanation.”

Sherrard also painted a picture of Saadi’s background, saying he came from a caring home environment, yet those nearest to him failed to notice alarming indicators such as his knife collection. Sherrard detailed: “He never went to parties, always felt rejected while all those at home felt all was OK.

“He is a young man who should have been noticed, his difficulties, some of those traits should have been noticed way before, who knows what the narrative would have been thereafter.”

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