Mum screamed ‘get off me’ as she was stabbed alongside pal who begged ‘stop, I’ve got children’ in ‘random’ beach attack
A MUM screamed “get off me” and her pal begged “stop, I’ve got children” as they were stabbed at a beach, a court has heard.
Amie Gray, 34, was knifed to death and friend Leanne Miles seriously injured in a “random” attack at Durley Chine Beach in May.
Criminology student Nasen Saadi, 20, researched methods of murder, including the killing of Brianna Ghey, before the alleged attack, a court heard today.
Amie and Leanne had been chatting next to a fire to keep warm when they were allegedly targeted at random by Saadi.
Saadi is standing trial at Winchester Crown Court charged with the murder of Amie and attempted murder of Leanne.
The court today heard Saadi, who was studying at Greenwich, had been asked by one of his lecturers: “You’re not planning a murder, are you?”
It came after he had asked his lecturers a series of questions about defences for murder.
Saadi would also ask questions unrelated to the subject of the lesson including self-defence justification for murder, DNA analysis and other forensic evidence, the court heard.
Sarah Jones KC, prosecuting, told the court: “Nasen Saadi, as he walked along that promenade and thought about the culmination of a plan he had worked on for who knows how long but which he had spent the last couple of nights walking through and researching.
“Nothing fine or glorious in his plans I’m afraid, nothing of self-improvement or to benefit anyone else.
“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.
“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 added: “With purpose, slowly, stealthily and quietly, when he thought no-one would observe him, he hovered at the edges of the promenade, then stepped on to the sand, and walked directly towards the two women with a knife in his hand.
“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 streetlights or the moonlight and back into anonymity.
“He got rid of his weapon. He changed his clothes and shoes and got rid of them.”
Saadi is also said to have researched knives online before purchasing some.
In March, he also researched “why is it harder for a killer to be caught if he does it in another town” and “which is the deadliest knife”.
He also looked up Bournemouth beach, how many people visited, whether it was open at night and which hotels did not have CCTV cameras, the court heard.
Saadi stayed at a Travelodge hotel from May 21 and the nearby Silver How Guest house two days later.
The night before the alleged attack, Saadi is said to have gone to see the movie The Strangers, in which both the male and female leads are stabbed.
On the night of the alleged stabbing, Saadi walked at night along the promenade to Durley Chine, jurors were told.
Leanne, who survived, described the horror to police.
She said Amie had attempted to escape their attacker, but they then returned to stab her.
Ms Miles said: “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 also said: “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.”
CCTV is said to have captured the attack, before Saadi was positively identified by a photographer who was in the area at the time, the court heard.
In police interview, Saadi said he had an interest in true crime and enjoyed horror movies.
He also admitted visiting Bournemouth, but said he might have suffered a “blackout” or “been affected because he had been drinking”.
A subsequent search of his home found a number of knives which showed his “fascination” with them, as well as latex gloves, a torch and a black balaclava.
Saadi, who has pleaded guilty to failing to provide his mobile phone code to police, denies the charges.
The trial continues.