A garage worker from Eastbourne has pleaded guilty to the “sadistic” murder of the schoolteacher Sabina Nessa in London last September.
At the start of his trial at the Old Bailey in London, Koci Selamaj, 36, was asked how he wished to plead to the charge of murder. “Guilty,” he replied.
Prosecuting, Alison Morgan QC said: “This was a murder involving sexual or sadistic conduct. That being the case, the prosecution will submit that the appropriate starting point when considering the minimum term is one of 30 years.”
Nessa, 28, was found dead in Cator Park, Kidbrooke, south-east London, on 18 September, a day after leaving her home to meet a friend in a nearby bar.
The year 1 teacher at Rushey Green primary school in Catford was found covered with leaves near a community centre in the park.
The court heard that CCTV footage showed Selamaj, who had a history of domestic violence, struck Nessa an estimated 34 times to the head with a metal emergency traffic triangle, and then killed her by asphyxiation.
Morgan said the defendant then “removed Miss Nessa’s tights and underwear and lifted her clothes so that the mid to upper parts of her body were exposed”.
She said a pathology report found no positive evidence of a sexual assault but this did not exclude the possibility of such an attack.
“The prosecution submits that the circumstances in which Miss Nessa’s body was found demonstrate the sexual motivation that must have existed – the positioning of her legs, the exposure of parts of her body and the removal of her underwear,” she said.
She added: “None of those factual features are disputed in this case.”
After killing Nessa, Selamaj covered her body in grass at the place in the park she was found the next day, the court heard.
Selamaj then drove his Nissan Micra to a pre-booked room at the Grand Hotel in Eastbourne, east Sussex, Morgan told the court. He travelled via Tunbridge Wells, Kent, where he dumped the traffic triangle used in the attack, she said.
The makeshift weapon was later recovered by officers from Kent fire and rescue service, she said. Nessa’s tights and underwear have never been recovered, Morgan told the court.
She said the attack was “premeditated, not in the sense that he targeted Sabina Nessa but because it targeted any lone female”.
Morgan urged the judge, Mr Justice Sweeney, to consider the context of the attack in his sentencing.
“The circumstances of this attack involving the targeting of a lone female at night in circumstances which created and aggravated the ongoing public concern about the safety of women following on from the tragic murder of Sarah Everard, just six months before: that is an aggravating feature,” she said.
She also urged the judge to consider Selamaj’s history of domestic violence. She told the court his former partner gave evidence to the prosecution. “This included violent instances including at least two occasions when the defendant placed his hands around her throat in a strangling move,” Morgan said.
“As a result of the defendant’s violent behaviour towards his former partner, she left their shared home,” the court heard.
Morgan said: “Sabina Nessa was an outstanding primary school teacher. She was 28 years old when she was murdered. She was a much-loved daughter, sister and aunt. Her death has been catastrophic for her family. They will provide the court with evidence as to the impact of her loss on the family and as to her life, her prospects and her character.”
She added: “She was attacked by a stranger as she went about her business.”
A lawyer defending Selamaj said: “There is little between the prosecution and the defence. There is no challenge to the evidence.”
Speaking outside court, Nessa’s sister Jebina Islam broke down in tears as she told how the guilty plea was “difficult to digest”. She said it was a “step in the right direction” but did not bring her sister back.
She said: “We as a family are broken and there is not a day that goes by that we do not think of her. There are no words to describe the pain we are going through and the pain which he has caused. The fact we will never know the motive for why he killed our sister is not only frustrating but heartbreaking. No family should go through what we are going through, and each day is not getting any easier.”
Mr Justice Sweeney adjourned sentencing until 7 April.
