Criminology student 'murdered woman at random to know what it feels like' (2025)

A criminology student spent a month planning a random murder so he could ‘know what it would be like to take life’, a court has heard.

Nasen Saadi has been accused of killing Amie Gray, 34, and injuring 38-year-old Leanne Miles on Durley Chine Beach, Bournemouth, on May 24.

He spent a month planning the attack, Winchester Crown Court was told.

Saadi, 20, from Croydon, denies charges of murder and attempted murder.

Sarah Jones KC, prosecuting, told the jury today: ‘He 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.’

The prosecutor said Amie and Leanne were chatting by a fire on the beach to watch the full moon when they were attacked.

‘With purpose, slowly, stealthily and quietly; when he thought no one would observe him, he hovered at the edges of the promenade, then stepped onto the sand,’ the barrister said.

‘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 street lights or the moonlight and back into anonymity.

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

Amie, a football coach from Poole, was pronounced dead at the scene. Leanne was treated for stab wounds to her chest and back at hospital.

Ms Jones said Saadi spent weeks researching methods of murder. His internet searches between March and April included: ‘deadliest knife’, ‘machete’ and ‘what hotels don’t have CCTV’.

During lectures at the University of Greenwich, Saadi asked questions not related to the subject of the talk, Ms Jonessaid.

After fielding questions about DNA analysis, forensic evidence and justifying a killing as self-defence, Saadi’s lecturer said: ‘You’re not planning a murder are you?’

‘But he didn’t reply,’ Ms Jonestold the court.

The defendant booked a room at a Travelodgein Bournemouth for two nights from May 21. During one evening, Saadi watched The Strangers – Chapter 1, a reboot of the 2008 home invasion film.

‘The male and female leads are both stabbed – the male dies and the female survives. It suggests doesn’t it, that the defendant gravitated to what he likes to watch or sought inspiration or encouragement from what he saw,’ Ms Jones said.

Leanne told police she saw Amie try to escape only for the attacker to return.

The court heard she told officers: ‘I ran to the top of the promenade, and I could hear Amie saying, “get off me”.

‘I couldn’t see her because she was down by the beach where it was dark. I think the guy must have chased back up to the promenade. I couldn’t see anybody, there wasn’t, there was nobody around.

‘And he came back on to me, and he was continuously stabbing me, and I told him to stop. I kept turning my back to him, so all my injuries are on one side of my back.”

She added: ‘I didn’t want to look at him. I couldn’t look at him. And I told him, I said, “please stop”. I said, “please stop, I’ve got children”. And then I think that’s when he started to go, he walked away.’

The trial continues.

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