BREAKING: Koci Selamaj sentenced to whole life for the murder of Sabina Nessa

Sabina Nessa’s parents described their daughter’s killer as an ‘animal’

| UPDATED

36-year-old Koci Selamaj has been given a whole life sentence with the minimum of 36 years for the murder of 28-year-old Sabina Nessa back in September last year.

Selamaj pleaded guilty to her murder in February earlier this year after being arrested and charged a few days after Sabina’s murder.

It was reported Selamaj refused to appear in court for his sentencing yesterday. A video link was also made available to him but he turned it down.

Sabina Nessa was reported missing before her body was discovered in Cator Park in Kidbrooke, Greenwich 24 hours later.

Sabina was hit over the head 34 times with a 2ft-long metal traffic triangle, before Selamaj carried her away unconscious. He then pulled up her clothes, removed her tights and underwear and strangled her before covering her body in grass.

She was killed five minutes away from her house whilst on her way to meet friends at the pub, the Metropolitan Police revealed.

In a statement from Sabina’s parents, they described Selamaj as an “animal”. Their statement continued to say: “Our beautiful loving, caring, and funny daughter is no more. This is  so hard to digest. As a parent you would never of thought that your child would die  before you, not in a way that our daughter Sabina did.

“You had no  right to take her away from us is such a cruel way. The moment the  police officer came into our house and told us she was found dead  our world shattered into tiny pieces and these pieces cannot be put  back together. How could you ever do such a thing to an innocent  girl walking by, minding her own business, you are not a human  being you are an animal.” They said their daughters purpose in life, teaching, has been cut short at the hands of Selamaj.

Sabina’s sister said Selamaj’s failure to appear in court “truly reflects” him as a “coward”. She described her older sister as “powerful, fearless, bright and just an amazing soul”.

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