Celeste Manno’s killer Luay Sako on hunger strike

Stalker and murderer Luay Sako who stabbed his 23-year-old former colleague to death at her Mernda home has been hospitalised after a week-long hunger strike.

One of Victoria’s most high-profile murderers, who has previously tried to kill himself, has been on hunger strike for a week.

Stalker Luay Sako, who murdered 23-year-old Celeste Manno, was on Thursday night taken from Ravenhall Prison to hospital amid concerns about “high ketone levels”.

Sources said he was on day seven of “voluntary starvation”.

It is understood that it is not the first time Sako has starved himself.

Luay Sako was hospitalised on Thursday night as a result of his hunger strike. Picture: Ian Currie

The killer also needed ­hospital treatment last ­October after attempting to take his own life.

It is not known where Sako is being treated but prisoners are usually taken to the secure St Augustine’s wing of St Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne.

Sako is serving a minimum 30-year sentence for the stabbing murder of Ms Manno at her Mernda home in 2020.

The obsessed stalker smashed through her bedroom window where Ms Manno was sleeping and inflicted fatal injuries.

He drove himself to a police station where he was arrested.

Sako had been a work colleague of Ms Manno until he was fired.

He became fixated with her after she showed him kindness in the aftermath of his dismissal from a Mill Park call centre.

Ms Manno’s concerns for her safety grew to the point she blocked him on social media.

She was then forced to go to police and take out an intervention order in the period before her death.

But Sako continued to stalk her using a collection of social media accounts he set up for the purpose.

Celeste Manno was brutally murdered by Sako in her family home in Mernda.

Ms Manno was forced to go to police and take out an intervention order against Sako.

Ravenhall is a medium-security prison built in 2017 which has 75 dedicated mental health beds and the capacity to provide mental health services for about 100 other prisoners as outpatients.

The family of Ms Manno was deeply upset earlier when Sako was sentenced in February 2024.

Aggie Di Mauro, who found her daughter dead, said she was disgusted at him being spared a life term.

“It’s outrageous, absolutely unbelievable that the court decided to grant him mercy, even though he showed Celeste none,” Ms Di Mauro said.

“Quite clearly, his right to mercy was more important than her right to life.”

Ms Di Mauro has been campaigning for mandatory life sentences for all murderers so “no other family will have to beg like me”.

“Failing her that night has been impossible to deal with so the least I can do is get her justice,” she told a rally last year.

Originally published as Celeste Manno’s killer Luay Sako on hunger strike