The man who stalked and murdered Celeste Manno feigned symptoms of psychosis in an attempt to be declared mentally unfit, a court has heard, including telling psychiatrists that a hallucination called “Isha” had told him he needed to act like a criminal.
Luay Nader Sako was found by several psychiatric experts to have faked the symptoms and was eventually ruled mentally fit to stand trial over the murder of the 23-year-old woman.
Celeste Manno was murdered by an obsessed former co-worker in November 2020.Credit: Facebook
Sako stalked Manno for more than a year before he stabbed her to death while she slept in her bed in her Mernda home, in Melbourne’s outer-north, on November 16, 2020.
Sako, 39, who worked briefly with Manno at a call centre, pleaded guilty to murder last year. Supreme Court Justice Jane Dixon is now examining what factors to consider when deciding a sentence.
Forensic psychiatrist Dr Rajan Darjee gave evidence on Tuesday, during the second day of Sako’s plea hearing, and said he believed Sako saw an Instagram photograph of Manno and her new boyfriend and it was the “straw that broke the camel’s back”.
The photo made it clear to Sako that she was unavailable, Darjee said, and left him feeling a jealous rage. Within hours of the photo being posted, Sako murdered Manno.
Luay Nader Sako arrives at the Supreme Court in Melbourne on Tuesday.Credit: Diego Fedele
The court heard that after his arrest, Sako attempted get assessed as mentally impaired. He began mentioning hallucinations involving “Isha” to those assessing him in early 2022, describing him to Darjee as “ugly ... big ears, a big nose [and] pointy teeth”.
Sako said the hallucination was in the car with him before the offending and had told him he had become a criminal, so he had to act like one and “end things”.
Luay Sako pleaded guilty to Manno’s murder.
Darjee told the court he agreed with other experts who found Sako exaggerated and portrayed “Isha” as a symptom of psychosis to try to get a mental impairment defence.
However, the psychiatrist said he also believed that the hallucination represented Sako trying to understand and describe an ugly side of himself that he could not reconcile.
“I think it’s really his way of kind of explaining what’s going on in different parts of himself, a part of him that absolutely hated the victim, but he won’t be able to incorporate that with a part of him that was in love with the victim,” Darjee said.
“He tried to portray that as if it’s a psychotic experience and I didn’t think it was.
“He was exaggerating, he was trying to persuade me that he had a mental impairment defence … because he wanted to get sympathy and he didn’t want to be seen as being a monster.”
Darjee assessed Sako three times and produced a 125-page report, the longest he’d written in his career. He diagnosed Sako with an extreme personality disorder, depressive disorder and body dysmorphia. He said he had never seen anyone who had such an extreme personality disorder who was not also psychopathic.
Darjee said Sako had felt “increasingly persecuted” by police and Manno after an intervention order was taken out against him and he was charged with breaching the order.
“In terms of the murder, I think at the time he was both enraged towards the victim but also wanted the whole situation to disappear. That’s why he committed the murder, in my view,” Darjee said.
Manno’s family members were again in court on Tuesday, when more victim impact statements were read.
Chris Ridsdale, who had only recently started a relationship with Manno, said his life had changed completely.
“Celeste was such an incredible person with such a positive influence on everything around her. The loss I feel isn’t just for what I feel for her, but the future … every day is a reminder of what we should have had together,” he said.
Celeste Manno posted photos of her and boyfriend Chris Ridsdale to social media hours before she was murdered.Credit: Facebook
Ridsdale said he constantly thought about how the pair would have spent weekends if she was alive: at the beach, at home watching movies on rainy days and on trips with friends.
“You try to go on with your life going forward knowing it’s what she wanted you to do, but every new experience … is one you should have experienced together,” he said.
“The pain is renewed in some way each day, it may come and go in waves, sometimes over a day, a week, and in some ways it’s dulled in your mind in time, but it will never be gone.
“This crime has changed my life, this crime has robbed us of our future. I have lost my beautiful Celeste and nothing will ever change that.”
Grace Di Mauro, Manno’s aunt and godmother, sobbed as she described her niece as an “angel of love and light” who was ruthlessly torn from her family.
She addressed Sako directly, and said: “When you began stalking Celeste, she showed me your work photo and in that moment, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of unease and deep concern.
“I warned her, ‘Baby girl, please be careful with this one, it has evil eyes’. Evil. I worried about her safety but Celeste, with her pure heart, couldn’t fathom the existence of such darkness.
“You, with your twisted actions, proved her wrong in the most devastating way possible. You revealed your true demonic nature, inflicting pain and destruction upon an innocent soul … how could you be so heartless, so deprived.”
Di Mauro said she had a sense of foreboding before the murder and constantly reminded Manno to be vigilant and aware of anything suspicious. She sobbed as she said she had failed her niece.
“Now I carry the weight of that regret with me always ... It is a burden I will bear for the rest of my life,” she said.
Sako’s hearing will continue on Wednesday.
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