I have been stabbed lots of times... I am in so much pain: Jurors hear harrowing 999 call from Bournemouth beach stabbing victim as her personal trainer friend was murdered by criminology student
A beach stabbing victim is heard pleading for paramedics to hurry up and that she was in so much pain in a chilling 999 call played to jurors today during a murder trial.
A beach stabbing victim is heard pleading for paramedics to hurry up and that she was in so much pain in a chilling 999 call played to jurors today during a murder trial.
Leanne Miles is heard saying during the harrowing 11 minute call that she had been knifed lots of times before she begged for help.
Ms Miles was randomly attacked in Durley Chine Beach in Bournemouth, Dorset, alongside her personal trainer friend Amie Gray, 34.
Mrs Gray was pronounced dead at the scene while Ms Miles, then aged 38, suffered 20 injuries but survived the attack on the evening of May 24 after screaming Please stop, Ive got children.
During the 999 call, Ms Miles says: I have been stabbed lots of times. Can you hurry up, please hurry up.
I need you to hurry, I am in so much pain.
Criminology student Nasen Saadi, 20, is on trial at Winchester Crown Court charged with the murder of the Mrs Gray as well as the attempted murder of Ms Miles.
He is said to have taken inspiration from high profile stabbings such as the murder of teenager Brianna Ghey when he carried out the horrifyingly savage attack on Mrs Gray, prosecutors said.
Saadi allegedly searched online for weapons as well as busiest beaches before settling on Durley Chine Beach where he allegedly carried out the attack.
Amie Gray (pictured) died after being stabbed on Durley Chine Beach, Bournemouth, at about 11.45pm on May 24 this year - a man has now gone on trial charged with murdering her
Nasen Saadi, from Croydon in south London, has been accused of murdering Amie Gray on Bournemouth beach - a court artist sketch depicts him at Winchester Crown Court last week
Sian Gray, wife of Amie Gray, is pictured outside Winchester Crown Court - she attended todays court proceedings, watching from the public gallery
Saadi, a student at Greenwich University in London, had taken such an interest in true crime his lecturer had once asked him Youre not planning a murder are you? when he plied her with questions about forensics and how different police forces operated.
In March, Saadi is said to have researched why is it harder for a killer to be caught if he does it in another town and which is the deadliest knife. The following month, he allegedly carried out online searches for the busiest beaches and then the following day looked at whether Bournemouth beach was open at night and if sand or pebbles were easiest to run on.
On May 21, Saadi travelled down from his home in Croydon to Bournemouth, where he checked into a Travelodge hotel which he had booked in advance, the court heard.
Two days before the alleged attack, Saadi went to the cinema and watched The Strangers – Chapter 1 which the prosecutor described as a slasher home invasion movie where the male and female leads are both stabbed.
The jury at Winchester Coroners Court, in Hampshire, were also shown an interview with Ms Miles done just days later, whilst she was still in hospital.
Ms Miles said they had met up on her favourite beach after Mrs Grays football training and they were approached by a young man who then stabbed them.
She said: We saw a shadow of the person coming in front of us, I just remember we turned around, he wasnt very old.
I thought Amie knew him, she turned around and smiled at him, giving him the opportunity to say something.
He went towards me first because I remember Amie saying what are you doing, get off her....
I quickly ran up the promenade, I couldnt see her, it was dark, I think the guy must have realised I wasnt there and he chased back up.
He was continuously stabbing me, I had my back to him.
Amies wife Sian attended todays proceedings and watched from the public gallery.
Amie Gray (left) is pictured here with her wife Sian (right) in a photo provided by Dorset Police
Dorset Police issued this family picture of Amie Gray, 34, from Poole, who was killed on Durley Chine Beach, West Undercliff Promenade in Bournemouth, on May 24 this year
Sarah Jones KC, prosecuting, today read statements from two university students who had left the beach just before the attack.
The two women, Emily Ackerman and Caitlyn McIver, remembered seeing someone in dark clothing on the promenade and said that when he saw them looking at him he pulled his hoodie over his face.
Ms McIver barked at him as he passed to deter him from approaching them.
Ms Jones told jurors that, while the defendant was studying for a degree in criminology at Greenwich University in south-east London, he had asked his lecturers a series of questions about getting away with murder.
She said one of them then felt prompted to ask him: Youre not planning a murder, are you?
The prosecutor said that Mrs Gray and Ms Miles had been chatting next to a fire to keep warm on the Dorset beach under a full moon when they were targeted by Saadi.
She said: 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, Im 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 couldnt bear to see people engaged in a happy normal social interaction and he decided to lash out, to hurt, to butcher.
Ms Jones 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.
Ms Jones said that during his university lectures, Saadi would ask questions not related to the subject of the talk.
Nasen Saadi has denied the murder of 34-year-old personal trainer Amie Gray (pictured)
These included raising queries about self-defence justification for murder, DNA analysis and other forensic evidence, the prosecutor told the court.
She added that a lecturer explained his questions were not relevant to the lecture but there would be police input later in the course and he could save his interest for then.
The lecturer was said to have then followed up with, Youre not planning a murder, are you? - to which Saadi did not reply, jurors heard.
Ms Jones said Saadi also did online research about knives which he then bought, and looked into the murder of teenager Brianna Ghey in Warrington, Cheshire, and her killers.
She added: In March he researched, why is it harder for a killer to be caught if he does it in another town, the merits of one weapon over another, swords or daggers over knives, or which is the deadliest knife.
Ms Jones said Saadi also researched Bournemouth beach and how many people visited and whether it was open at night, as well as about which hotels accepted cash payment and did not have CCTV cameras.
The prosecutor told the court he booked a stay at a Travelodge hotel from May 21 but also the nearby Silver How guest house into which he booked on May 23.
She added that on the previous evening, Saadi had gone to see the movie The Strangers: Chapter 1, which the prosecutor called a slasher home invasion movie.
A court artist sketch from June 4 this year of Nasen Saadi who has been charged with murdering Amie Gray, which he denies
Describing the plot, she said: The male and female leads are both stabbed - the male dies and the female survives.
It suggests, doesnt it, that the defendant gravitated to what he likes to watch or sought inspiration or encouragement from what he saw?
Ms Jones said that on each of the evenings he stayed in Bournemouth, Saadi walked at night along the promenade to Durley Chine for what she described as a recce of the area.
She told how Ms Miles described the incident to police while in hospital and said Mrs Gray had attempted to escape their attacker who then returned to stab her.
The court heard that Ms Miles said: I ran to the top of the promenade, and I could hear Amie saying, Get off me.
I couldnt 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 couldnt see anybody - there wasnt, 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.
Floral tributes to Amie Gray were left on Bournemouth beach following her death on May 24
She also said: I didnt want to look at him. I couldnt look at him. And I told him, I said, Please stop. I said, Please stop, Ive got children. And then I think thats when he started to go, he walked away.
Ms Jones said that analysis of CCTV footage, capturing the attack, had led to the identification of the defendant and a positive ID was made by a photographer named Michael Priddle who had been in the area at the time.
Ms Jones said that after Saadi was arrested, he initially declined to answer questions but went on to say that he had an interest in true crime and enjoyed horror movies.
She said that he then admitted he had visited Bournemouth but would not give details of his whereabouts at the time of the killing, while saying he might have suffered a blackout or been affected because he had been drinking.
Ms Jones added: The footage of the attack was played and he stated simply, Thats not me. He said he had no reason to attack someone for no reason and he wouldnt attack anyone for no reason.
The prosecutor added that a search of the defendants home by police 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 of murder and attempted murder. The trial continues.
