Most young people who study criminology at the University of Greenwich in south London do so in the hope of getting a job in the police or perhaps probation or the Prison Service.
But when Nasen Saadi suddenly switched courses and began to study the subject in the autumn of 2023, he did so with a different motive.
Over the academic year, Saadi repeatedly asked questions about how a murderer might get away with killing, how crime scenes were examined, and how police forces worked together if an offence was committed far from where the perpetrator lived. He sourced knives, analysed notorious murders and pinpointed a location for his murder.
In May he travelled by train from his home in south London to Bournemouth, more than 100 miles away, and tested – in real life – whether it was possible to kill and escape undetected.
The murder plan seems to have begun to take shape when Saadi, then 19, walked late into a session on the UK’s political system being led by the criminology lecturer Lisa-Maria Reiss in October 2023. He had just switched from a physical education course.
At the end of the lecture he took off his headphones and asked: “Going back to the point about self-defence for murder … could you plead self-defence if you were attacked first?” He also asked about how long DNA remained and how it was analysed.
Reiss, a Met police special constable as well as an academic, was taken aback as crime had not been the subject of her lecture and asked him: “You’re not planning a murder, are you?” He replied that he was doing research for a newspaper but Reiss was so worried about his attitude that she reported his behaviour within the university.
Reiss said Saadi was difficult to deal with, often appearing to ignore her when she answered him, and that he tried to provoke female classmates, repeatedly saying that women were weaker than men, that they shouldn’t work in certain jobs, and that police work was not for them.
Saadi returned to the topic of murder repeatedly and in November 2023, Reiss’s partner, Pavandeep Singh Aneja, also a special constable, did a Q&A with her class. Saadi asked him: “If a crime were to be committed in one area, how would that information be shared with police forces across England?” Another question that raised eyebrows was: “What are your thoughts on females as police officers?”
From January 2024, Saadi used university computers or his laptop to search for information about crimes. Some of the searches on the university computers were of such a disturbing nature that they triggered alerts. He repeatedly searched for information about stabbings and high-profile murders that featured knives, including the killing of 16-year-old Brianna Ghey in Cheshire.
He researched: “What is the deadliest knife” and scrutinised knife laws in England. He bought six knives online between February and April 2024. His parents, who run a business importing fruit in South Croydon, confiscated two knives and an axe from him. He moved out of their house and into the home of his aunt and grandfather.
In February he was accused of stalking. The way the Met police handled an allegation made against him has been examined by the force’s professional standards. The conclusion of this has not yet been published and the details are not known.
In April he began researching beaches in the south of England, trying to find out which ones people visited at night, and even whether it was easier to run on sand or pebbles.
On 24 April he searched “Bournemouth” and “machete” and in mid-May homed in on a particular area of Bournemouth beach, accessed by the well-known West Cliff zigzag path. When he told his aunt he was going to Dorset, she texted him: “Have a lovely first independent travel, enjoy.”
He took the train from south London to Bournemouth on 21 May and spent the next few days carrying out reconnaissance, including checking the positions of CCTV cameras.
He went to the cinema, watching The Strangers: Chapter 1, a home invasion movie involving a break-in where assailants chase the inhabitants with knives. He switched accommodation and, just after 11pm on 24 May, headed to the beach and attacked Amie Gray, 34, and her friend, Leanne Miles. He left Bournemouth the next morning.
When detectives got to him four days later, they found the suspect was, on the face of it, an ordinary 20-year-old from a good family who often travelled and attended Buddhist ceremonies together.
A neighbour described the family as “very kind”, saying Saadi’s mother had cooked for her when her daughter was unwell. She said Saadi used to play football in the garden. The neighbour said Saadi’s mother had been left “a broken woman” by the case.
When they searched Saadi’s bedroom, police found a knife in his bedside drawer. His grandfather told police that there was another knife hidden in between the wardrobe and wall. His parents handed over the knives and an axe they had taken from him.
Some of what Saadi had gleaned about police investigations paid off. None of the knives could be linked to the crime scene and he had got rid of all the clothes he had been wearing. He refused to give police the pin for his phone, knowing it could be used to establish his movements.
He could not deny he had been in Bournemouth as he was clearly caught on CCTV cameras during the day. Police used experts on gait and facial features to identify him in blurry night-time footage.
While in prison awaiting trial, Saadi dropped his guard, telling an officer during an assessment that he said he was fascinated by knives, the shape and look of them. He became “cocky” as he told the officer the police would not crack his phone because it had an alphanumeric password, a combination of letters and numbers.
The jury was not given a firm motive for the attack. In court the prosecution suggested he may have wanted to achieve notoriety, or to know what it would be like to make women feel afraid.
One incident the jury was not allowed to hear about came while Saadi was being held at Belmarsh prison in south-east London.
He was under 24-hour watch due to concerns about his safety, and asked a female officer: “Have you heard about the Bournemouth beach murder? What is being said? Is there a lot of press?” and began masturbating.
But unless he reveals his motive, the reason he decided to kill may remain unknown.
