The deranged stalker who murdered Celeste Manno in her own bed knew exactly where she slept after finding detailed plans of her home online.
Ms Manno was stabbed to death 23 times by Luay Nader Sako on November 16, 2020, a year after he began a brutal stalking campaign against her.
On Wednesday, Victoria’s Supreme Court heard Sako’s twisted love for the 23-year-old turned to hatred after she reported his scandalous behavior to police.
Luay Nader Sako is arraigned in the Supreme Court of Victoria in Melbourne. He had discovered online where Celeste Manno lived before killing her in her own bed
The knife Luay Sako used to kill Celeste Manno
Sako bought a knife and a hammer the day after his arrest in August that year and began an online investigation to track down his former colleague.
Sako, 39, from Roxburgh Park, pleaded guilty to Ms Manno’s murder on April 6 after years of trying to fight the charge of making false claims of mental disability.
Forensic psychiatrist Dr Rajan Dargee revealed Sako had found the floor plans of the house where Ms Manno lived with her loving mother Aggie Di Mauro in Mernda, 26km northeast of Melbourne’s central business district.
The court heard Sako made at least three trips to Ms Manno’s home before carrying out his murderous act.
“He went online, found the floor plan of the house and that’s where he identified where her bedroom was,” Dr Dargee said.
‘He obviously did that because he wanted to know where the bedroom was, because he wanted to get in. He wants to involve her.”
Sako murdered Ms Manno just hours after she went ‘public on Instagram’ with her new boyfriend Chris Ridsdale.
After seeing the Instagram post, Sako drove to Ms Manno’s house in Mernda, parked his car outside, climbed over the fence, broke her bedroom window with a hammer and stabbed her to death.
Sako used this hammer to smash her way into Celeste Manno’s bedroom
Sako knew Celeste Manno was home after she saw her white car (photo) parked in front of the door
Sako left bloodstains on the back gate. He jumped over it to get into the backyard and smashed through Mrs. Manno’s bedroom window
Dr. Dargee said that by then Sako’s unbridled love for Mrs Manno had turned into jealous rage.
“He clearly saw her more and more as an evil object rather than a positive object, and when a person begins to see someone he loved as an evil object, he begins to think about destroying that individual. And that’s what happens,” he said.
Ms Manno had initially shown Sako kindness and escorted him out of their workplace on the day he was fired from his call center job at Serco a year earlier.
Without warning or permission, Sako then kissed her on the cheek.
A week later, the obsessive social media posts started.
Until his arrest three months before the murder, Sako had had an idealized image of Mrs. Manno, describing her as his one true love.
Prosecutor Patrick Bourke KC told the court that Sako had never felt romantically attracted to anyone in his entire life before his obsession with Ms Manno.
‘He has not had any positive experiences with romantic feelings for anyone else. The victim is the first person he fell in love with,” he said.
“This murder was the result of the very first time this suspect was in a position where he had romantic feelings or desires for someone else.”
Sako killed Ms Manno just hours after going ‘Instagram public’ with her new boyfriend Chris Ridsdale (pictured)
Celeste Manno fought for her life but didn’t stand a chance against the surprise attack carried out in her bedroom in the middle of the night
Dr. Dargee, who appeared in court for Sako in an attempt to convince Judge Jane Dixon that the killer was suffering from a range of mental illnesses at the time of the murder, claimed Sako’s love turned to hate when she reported him to police because of his continued intimidation.
“He has a very fragile sense of self and a fractured identity, so when he feels that is threatened or crumbling, he has to do everything he can to protect himself,” he said.
An intervention order made against him by Ms Manno – an order which he breached – was described as ‘the straw that broke the camel’s back’.
“From his perspective (he was offended) because it didn’t fit his self-perception,” Dr. Dargee said.
That hatred saw Sako belittle the weight of his victim after killing her.
Dr. Dargee told the court Sako made derogatory comments about Ms Manno’s actions in the months before he killed her.
Sako took particular note of Ms Manno’s appearance at a contested hearing on an intervention order at the Heidelberg District Court in August that year.
The cowardly killer told Dr. Dargee that he found it “memorable” because Mrs. Manno seemed “taller” than he remembered her a year earlier.
‘It’s just a ride, isn’t it? It’s not relevant,” Mr Bourke suggested. “He meant she had gained weight.”
“He clearly denigrated her,” Dr. Ragee agreed.
Luay Sako is described as a mean and cowardly demon
Sako sent dozens of messages to Ms Manno via Instagram (pictured) before ending his correspondence with a three-and-a-half page rant. Months later he would kill Mrs. Manno
In his final statements to the court, Mr Bourke described Ms Manno’s murder as cold and calculated, and called for a life sentence.
“It was the sight of Ms. Manno on this evening with another man that triggered these motivations of jealousy, anger and humiliation,” he said.
‘He only had one intention. And that was to kill. She’s sleeping in her bedroom, in her house, at 3:30 in the morning, where she lives with her mother, and that’s where the suspect decides to go… when she couldn’t be more vulnerable. That’s part of the plan.
“He doesn’t come to her workplace…he doesn’t walk up to her in a supermarket.”
Mr Bourke said Sako had not shown an iota of remorse for what he had done, but had instead blamed everyone but himself.
“There have been no expressions of remorse, not even expressions of regret that this happened,” he said.
“There are many indications that the suspect blames a number of other people for this crime: the police, the deceased, her mother, her brother.”
The incident lasted just two and a half minutes, after which Sako drove straight to a local police station to taunt them about what he had done.
Mrs Manno’s mother, Aggie Di Mauro (centre), urged Judge Jane Dixon to give her daughter the justice she deserved
Both Ms Manno and her mother had begged Sako to leave her alone in the months before he struck.
The court heard Sako targeted Ms Manno via Instagram via various accounts with creepy, lewd and threatening messages, ending with a three-and-a-half page tirade demanding she withdraw her police complaints against him.
Ms Manno’s murder followed a series of female victims brutally murdered by male stalkers in Melbourne.
In 2019, Aiia Maasarwe was on her way home to Melbourne in January 2019 when she was followed, raped and murdered by Codey Herrmann after getting off the tram in Bundoora.
A year earlier, 22-year-old Eurydice Dixon was stalked for over an hour before being raped and murdered by a stranger in Carlton North’s Princes Park.
Mrs Manno’s mother Aggie Di Mauro this week begged Judge Dixon not to abandon her daughter with a lenient sentence.
“As a grieving mother, I cannot accept what the justice system produces,” she said.
“The expectation of the law is that every parent is subject to leniency or mercy towards the murderer of their child, which is unreasonable, cruel and inhumane.
“My sweetheart has failed miserably. She was failed by a flawed system, the police, and she was failed by me. Something I will have to live with for the rest of my life because of this beast. So I beg you: please don’t let Celeste be failed by the system that has already failed her again.”
The hearing continues.