Criminology student, 20, ‘butchered woman on beach to find out what it would be like to kill’

A murder-obsessed criminology student “butchered” a woman on a beach because he wanted to know what it would be like to take a life, a court has been told.

Nasen Saadi, 20, is alleged to have been inspired by “high-profile” stabbings such as the murder of teenager Brianna Ghey when he carried out the attack on football coach Amie Gray, prosecutors said.

Jurors heard Saadi had searched online for weapons as well as the busiest beaches before settling on Durley Chine Beach in Bournemouth, Dorset, where he is accused of attacking Mrs Gray, 34, and her friend Leanne Miles, 38, at random.

Mrs Gray – whose wife Sian was in court on Monday – was pronounced dead at the scene while Ms Miles suffered 20 injuries but survived the attack on May 24 after screaming: “Please stop, I’ve got children”.

Winchester Crown Court heard Saadi, a student at Greenwich University in London, had taken such an “interest” in true crime that his lecturer had once asked him “You’re not planning a murder are you?” when he “plied” her with questions about forensics and how different police forces operated.

Prosecutor Sarah Jones KC, opening the case against Saadi, said his lecturers reported him showing a “degree of specific interest in matters not related to the subject of his lectures” as he would often ask questions relating to murder and self-defence.

The prosecutor said he would also look online for knives which were “deliberately offensive-looking weapons designed, it would seem, to intimidate or worse”.

She added: “The lines of inquiry being pursued online are ‘stabbing’ and a frequent search for information relating to local or a high-profile murders caused by stabbings – the murder of Brianna Ghey, for instance, or her killers.”

Jurors heard that in March, Saadi researched “why is it harder for a killer to be caught if he does it in another town”.

The following month, he is said to have searched ‘whether Bournemouth beach was open at night” and if sand or pebbles were easiest to run on.

On May 21, Saadi travelled from his home in Croydon, south London, to Bournemouth, and checked into a Travelodge he had booked in advance, the court heard.

Two days before the alleged attack, Saadi went to the cinema to see The Strangers – Chapter 1, which the prosecutor described as a “slasher home invasion movie”.

On May 24, Ms Miles and Mrs Gray had “arranged to meet” at Durley Beach to enjoy a picnic.

Ms Jones said Saadi walked along the promenade and thought about his plan, adding: “This defendant seems to have wanted to know what it would be like to take life.”

Jurors were shown an interview with Ms Miles days after the attack while she was in hospital.

She says: “We saw a shadow of the person coming in front of us, I just remember we turned around, he wasn’t very old. I thought Amie knew him. She turned around and smiled at him, giving him the opportunity to say something...

“I quickly ran up the promenade, I couldn’t see her, it was dark. I think the guy must have realised I wasn’t there and he chased back up. He was continuously stabbing me, I had my back to him.”

The court heard Mrs Gray was stabbed ten times “in an act horrifying in its savagery and in its randomness”.

At his home in Purley, where Saadi was arrested on May 28, police found knives, latex gloves and a balaclava.

No weapon or clothing from the night of the killing have been discovered, Ms Jones added.

Saadi denies murder and attempted murder.

He has pleaded guilty to failing to provide his mobile phone code to police.

The trial, expected to last a week, continues.