A British judge on Friday sentenced a sexual predator to at least 36 years in prison for the murder of Sabina Nessa, a primary school teacher who was killed on her way to a friend’s house in London.
Koci Selamaj, from Eastbourne on the south coast of England, pleaded guilty to carrying out the premeditated attack on September 17. CCTV footage captured the moment the mechanic attacked Nessa from behind and hit her in the head 34 times with a 2-foot-long metal warning triangle.
Nessa, 28, was found dead in a park in Kidbrooke, southeast London. Her murder – as she walked through a park minutes from her home – has fueled concerns that women are unsafe on the streets of the UK capital.
Hundreds of people held a candlelight vigil in her memory shortly after her death, demanding an end to violence against women.
Nessa’s death came six months after the abduction, rape and murder of 33-year-old Sarah Everard in south London by an on-duty police officer. The Everard case shocked the country and also saw people take to the streets to speak out against violence against women.
“It is a striking feature of the defendant’s case that, clearly deliberately, it is not suggested by him that he felt remorse for what he did to Sabina Nessa,” the judge said. Nigel Sweeney.
Selamaj chose not to attend sentencing for the random attack.
Speaking to Selamaj, Nessa’s parents, Abdur Rouf and Azibun Nessa, said in a statement, “You had no right to take her away from us in such a cruel way.”
“The moment the police officer came to our house and told us she had been found dead, our world fell apart,” her parents said. “How could you do such a thing to an innocent girl walking by, minding her own business.”
“You are not a human being, you are an animal.”
The police and local government have been criticized for their response to the murder. The local government of Kidbrooke has distributed 200 personal alarms to women and vulnerable people in the area. Police handed out fact sheets with advice on staying safe on the streets, including recommendations to ‘plan your route ahead’, ‘tell someone where you are going’ and ‘stay within the streets’. very crowded places.
The advice drew a swift reaction from the public, with many pointing out that Nessa had been attacked while taking a short walk in a busy park in her own neighborhood.
“It’s not our fault that we keep getting killed,” Jaime Klingler, co-founder of the activist group Reclaim These Streets, told CBS News. “It’s not on us, and they need to stop putting it on us.”
Maddie Richards contributed to this report.
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