R v Koci Selmaj: Sentencing remarks
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 08 April 2022 |
| Subject Matter | Criminal |
| Court | Crown Court |
IN THE CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT
THE QUEEN
-v-
KOCI SELAMAJ
SENTENCING REMARKS OF MR JUSTICE SWEENEY
On 25 February 2022 the Defendant, who is aged 36, pleaded guilty on re-arraignment to the
murder of Sabina Nessa, a much loved 28 year old primary school teacher who, in the evening of
Friday 17 September 2021, was killed by him, a complete stranger, during a predatory attack upon
her as she was walking alone through Cator Park, in Kidbrooke in South East London, on her way to
meet a friend. She was savagely beaten unconscious, dragged off the beaten track into an area of
long grass, asphyxiated, and her body hidden.
Yesterday the Defendant refused to leave the prison to attend Court, or to attend from the prison
via video link. He has also refused to attend today. However cowardly those refusals may be, I have
no power to force him to attend. On the other hand, it is not disputed that his non-attendance is
voluntary, and that it is appropriate to sentence him in his absence.
The sentence for murder is life imprisonment, but I must also fix the minimum term that the
Defendant must serve before he can even be considered for release by the Parole Board. It may be
that he will never be released.
The first aspect of the process of identifying the correct minimum term is the selection of the
appropriate starting point. The Prosecution assert that the seriousness of the murder was
particularly high because it was a murder involving sexual conduct and that thus, in accordance with
paragraph 3 of Schedule 21 to the Sentencing Act 2020, the starting point should be one of 30 years.
On 25 February 2022 the Defendant indicated, for the first time, that he accepted that the murder
was sexually motivated, that no further evidence in relation to that issue was required, and that
therefore the correct starting point was indeed 30 years.
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