Man Who Murdered A UK Teacher Jailed For Life

Police said the attacker had been “skulking in the shadows” looking for a target when the twenty-eight-year-old teacher happened to cross his path while walking to meet a friend at a local pub.

The man who murdered a teacher in “savage” attack as she walked through a London park has been jailed for life.

Mr Justice Sweeney handed Koci Selamaj a 36-year minimum prison term after finding that he gained “considerable pleasure” from attacking Sabina Nessa.

The Old Bailey heard that he attacked her from behind and struck her repeatedly with a metal warning triangle before carrying her unconscious from the path and strangling her.

Mr Justice Sweeney called the murder “savage”, adding: “Sabina Nessa was the wholly blameless victim of an absolutely appalling murder which was entirely the fault of the defendant who has added to the sense of insecurity that people, particularly women, have living in our cities when walking or travelling alone, especially at night.”

He branded Selamaj, who refused to attend court for the sentencing and face Ms Nessa’s bereaved family, “cowardly”.

Mr Justice Sweeney said the victim was “an amazing role model who defied all norms, strove to be independent and was powerful, fearless, bright and an amazing soul”.

“She died in a way that no one should, and that will torment them all, and Sabina’s friends, for the rest of their lives,” he told the court.

“It is a striking feature of the defendant’s case that, clearly deliberately, it is not suggested by him that he has any remorse for what he did to Sabina Nessa.”

Selamaj, 36, had driven from his hometown of Eastbourne to Kidbrooke, south-east London, on the evening of 17 September.

Investigators have not established why he selected the area, which he had no connection to and is not known to have previously visited, for the murder.

After arriving in Kidbrooke, Selamaj went to a local Sainsbury’s and purchased a rolling pin, before realising that the metal warning triangle from his car boot was “a better weapon”, prosecutors said.