Sex predator serving life for murder stabbed prison guard with porcelain shard
Published: 10:49, 04 September 2024
Updated: 11:50, 04 September 2024
A sexual predator who was jailed for at least 36 years for the murder of primary school teacher Sabina Nessa smashed the toilet bowl in his cell and stabbed a guard with a porcelain shard, a court heard.
Garage worker Koci Selamaj, 37, was jailed for life in April 2022 for murdering Ms Nessa, 28, as she walked through Cator Park in Kidbrooke, south-east London.
He admitted wounding one guard with intent to cause really serious harm at Frankland Prison, a maximum security jail near Durham, and assaulting another occasioning actual bodily harm in May 2023.
On Wednesday, Judge Penny Moreland sentenced him to four-and-a-half years in jail and said he should be treated at Broadmoor secure hospital for his mental illness until he is well enough to return to the prison system.
Newcastle Crown Court heard how Selamaj was in his cell when a prison officer asked if he would be leaving for lunch.
The life prisoner let out a scream and began to smash up his toilet before arming himself with a shard of porcelain with which he attacked the guard.
The officer, who was stabbed in the knee and forearm, was assisted by colleagues, one of whom was punched two or three times in the face by Selamaj.
The judge determined the piece of porcelain was sharp enough to be considered like a blade.
In a victim statement, the stabbed officer said that in 10 years as a guard he had never been assaulted and that he had loved his job.
He said: “His strength was unbelievable, I feel very lucky as it could have been worse.
“Selamaj is in prison for murder so I know what he is capable of.”
Aidan Harvey, defending, said Selamaj used to hear voices and thought “the electricity in the wall was talking to him”, and noted that his mental condition had improved since he began being treated at Broadmoor.
Judge Moreland was told Selamaj will be at least 73 years old before he is eligible to apply for parole.
She determined that he will only serve the sentence for attacking the prison officers after the minimum term for murdering Ms Nessa has been completed.
Selamaj watched the proceedings via a videolink from Broadmoor.
He had refused to come to court when he was sentenced at the Old Bailey for Ms Nessa’s murder, causing widespread outrage.
That court heard how he travelled to London from the south coast to carry out the premeditated attack on a random woman on September 17 2021.
He targeted Ms Nessa as she walked through the park to meet a friend.
CCTV footage captured the moment Selamaj ran up behind her and hit her over the head 34 times with a 2ft-long metal traffic triangle.
He carried her unconscious body up a grassy bank and out of view.
He then pulled up her clothes, removed her tights and underwear, and strangled her before covering her body in grass.
Ms Nessa, who taught a year one class at Rushey Green Primary School in Catford, was found nearly 24 hours later near a community centre in the park.
Days later, Selamaj, from Eastbourne, East Sussex, was arrested in the seaside town and pleaded guilty to murder.
Mr Justice Sweeney said at the sentencing hearing that it was a “savage” sexually motivated attack.
Read more
More by this author
PA News