Student accused of beach death asked questions on ‘how to get away with murder’

Nasen Saadi is on trial charged with the murder of Amie Gray, 34, on Bournemouth seafront in May this year.

Amie Gray (Dorset Police/PA)

A 20-year-old criminology student accused of the murder of Amie Gray on Bournemouth seafront asked “questions on how to get away with murder” during a policing lecture, a court has heard.

Nasen Saadi, from Croydon, south London, is on trial charged with the murder of the 34-year-old physical trainer at Durley Chine Beach, West Undercliff Promenade, on May 24, and the attempted murder of 39-year-old Leanne Miles at the same location.

Winchester Crown Court heard that Saadi had changed his course at the University of Greenwich to study criminology and criminal psychology in the autumn term of 2023.

Lecturer Dr Lisa-Maria Reiss told the court that after she had been giving a seminar titled “Introduction to Social Sciences”, Saadi had asked her questions about murder.

She said that the lecture had been about how the political structure in the UK was organised.

Dr Reiss said: “I had finished the lecture and asked if there were any questions, he said ‘Can you please go to the point where you talk about murder for self-defence?’”

She continued: “I was confused because I couldn’t remember talking about the subject although it’s a subject I am familiar with, I didn’t bring it up in the lecture, I saw my students were very confused as to why the question was asked.

“I remember saying that we didn’t discuss this in this lecture and there would be a lecture upcoming dealing with policing matters.

“From what I remember, he completely ignored that and asked again about cases of self-defence and how often it would go through if the person claimed they had been attacked first.”

She added: “He asked me what DNA is left behind and for how long and if police are able to trace back DNA and I said ‘Yes, they are fairly competent with that’.

“He ignored it, it was almost as if he didn’t listen.

“Afterwards I said to him ‘You are not planning a murder are you?’ He said no, he is researching for an article he wants to write for a competitive paper so he could win £500.”

Dr Reiss, who served as a special officer for the Metropolitan Police, said that her partner, Pavandeep Singh Aneja, who was also a special police officer, came in for a question-and-answer question with the class in November.

She said that Saadi asked different types of questions to the other students and added: “It was very focused on DNA, how to get away with murder, these sorts of things which were very different to the other questions we would get such as work-life balance.”

Mr Singh said that Saadi asked questions on what steps would be taken after a murder had been committed about forensic evidence.

He said: “There were questions along the lines of ‘If a crime is committed in one area, in one police force, how information would be shared with other police forces?'”

“There were more questions, ‘What are your thoughts of females as police officers?’, which I thought was a pretty strange question.”

Amateur photographer Michael Priddle told the court that he had gone to the seafront on the night of the incident to take photos of bird life as well as the rising full moon.

He said that he had left the seafront at about 11.40pm to walk back up to the cliff top past a Victorian shelter on his way home when he heard two loud screams from the beach area.

He said that within three to five minutes, he saw a man wearing dark trousers and a black, hooded coat with a band of colour around the front, walking towards him.

He added that he felt “very concerning for my own safety, he seemed not a nice person” because of “his grimacing and frown”.

He continued: “I seriously kept an eye on him for my safety, I kept walking.”

Mr Priddle added: “He looked a nasty person, I also kept an eye on him when he walked past the young couple in the Victorian shelter.”

Benjamin Raffo, a prison officer at HMP Winchester where Saadi was being held in June after his arrest, said the defendant had told him that he was “fascinated” with knives and he had six at his home in Croydon.

He also said that Saadi showed signs of “cockiness” over his decision to use an alphanumeric pass code on his mobile phone because that would be the “hardest for the police to crack”.

The court has heard that Saadi has pleaded guilty to failing to provide his mobile phone code to police.

Sarah Jones KC, prosecuting, has told the jury that Mr Priddle picked Saadi’s image out of an identity parade of 10 photos three days after the fatal incident.

The defendant denies the charges and the trial continues.