A criminology student with a fascination for knives and a “rage” against women who stabbed a mother to death on a Dorset beach has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 39 years.
Nasen Saadi, 21, spent months plotting the attack and questioning university lecturers about how a killer would get away with murder. He kitted himself up with latex gloves, a balaclava, wet wipes and nail clippers to try to avoid being traced.
On Friday, he was told he would serve at least 39 years and 65 days in prison for the murder of Amie Gray and the attempted murder of her friend Leanne Miles on Bournemouth beach one night last May. Gray, 34, a sports coach, was killed after a blade penetrated her heart.
Mrs Justice Cutts said Saadi had attacked Gray and Miles because he had a grievance against society and against women in particular. Rejection by girls and women had led to a “deeply suppressed rage” and the idea of becoming a notorious killer attracted him. She said he was an “extremely dangerous young man” who thought he had planned the “perfect crime”.
Winchester crown court was told that on the morning of his sentencing Saadi told a member of his legal team: “I never got noticed when I did a good thing. People have only noticed me when I did a bad thing.”
Sarah Jones KC, prosecuting, said a psychiatric report carried out after Saadi was convicted concluded he did not have autism spectrum disorder but exhibited features of that condition. She said he had a sense of grievance, an obsession with killing and a desire to feel powerful.
Saadi’s barrister, Charlie Sherrard KC, said his client now recognised his guilt and had engaged with the neurodiversity team in prison.
Sherrard said Saadi had never been in trouble before, was from a loving family and was “very much under the radar”.
He said the psychiatric report revealed Saadi had “repressed socially induced trauma resulting from a combination of real and perceived rejections and social humiliations resulting in him feeling alien from general society, a social misfit, somebody who had hardly any friends at school, had never had a girlfriend and seemed to be avoided”.
He had “significantly low self-esteem and a general sense of inadequacy”, which led to him becoming fascinated with violent films and “finding some level of fascination in the mind of a psychopath”. The barrister said: “There’s an ongoing sense of rage against society. The idea of high levels of notoriety became a valid goal in itself.”
The trial heard Saadi, from south London, had carefully researched how police investigated murders. After the attack, he hid his weapon and disposed of all the clothes he was wearing, leaving no traces of DNA or fingerprints at the scene.
Saadi refused to give police the passcode to his phone, stopping them from using technology to pinpoint him on the beach, but Dorset detectives built a strong circumstantial case that proved he was the murderer.
In the lead-up to the attack, Saadi bought six knives, including a machete and a hunting knife, and repeatedly searched for details of murders, including those of 16-year-old Brianna Ghey in Cheshire, 13-year-old Milly Dowler from Surrey, and the Miyazawa family, in Setagaya, Tokyo. His online pseudonyms included “Ninja Killer” and “NSKills”.
In her victim personal statement, Gray’s wife, Sian Gray, said the “world had fallen” from beneath the feet of her and the couple’s daughter.
She said: “I’m not the person I was before. I fight every day to keep my career on track and continue to be a role model for our daughter who is now growing up without one of her parents.
“I have to watch her drama performances, attend her army cadets remembrance parade and share her successes and disappointments, alone … the memories that should be shared.
“At the age of 36, I should not have to hold my deceased wife’s cold hand, nor should my daughter have to say goodbye and grieve over a coffin.
“Our tragedy has been a public display for all to see. Amie’s beautiful life has now been reduced to forever being remembered as ‘the murder victim’.”
Amie Gray’s mother, Sharon Macklin, said: “Amie was an amazing, funny, kind and energetic soul. She had a big smile and a loud laugh and when she entered the room it filled with laughter.”
Leanne Miles declined to give a statement because she did not want Saadi to have “any knowledge or understanding” of her.
The court heard that Saadi harboured strong misogynistic views, repeatedly telling fellow students at the University of Greenwich that women were weaker than men and should not work in certain jobs.
It is possible he may have taken sexual pleasure in the killing. While he was being held in the high-security Belmarsh prison in south-east London, awaiting trial, he asked a female officer if the killing was making headlines and then masturbated in front of her.
DI Mark Jenkins, of Dorset police’s major crime investigation team, said he believed Saadi had gone to Bournemouth to kill but had targeted Gray and Miles because they were isolated and he could surprise them. “He saw an opportunity and took it,” Jenkins said.
