Luay Sako jailed for 30 years for murdering Celeste Manno, who was stalked then slashed 23 times
The anguished mother of murdered woman Celeste Manno has lashed Victoria’s justice system, saying the sentence handed to her daughter’s killer is “absolutely unbelievable”.
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The furious mother of murdered woman Celeste Manno said her trust in the system has been “completely destroyed” after her daughter’s killer avoided life in jail.
Aggie Di Mauro on Thursday hit out at the state government for breaking promises she believes could save innocent victims like her daughter from being stalked.
Stalker Luay Sako was sentenced to 36 years jail with a minimum of 30 years for the murder of his former co-worker, devastating Ms Manno’s family.
“It’s outrageous, absolutely unbelievable that the court decided to grant him mercy even though he showed Celeste none,” her mother, Aggie Di Mauro, said outside the Supreme Court on Thursday.
“Quite clearly his right to mercy was more important than her right to life.”
Ms Di Mauro – who found her daughter dead in her bedroom after she was slashed 23 times by an obsessed Sako despite taking an intervention order out against him – gave her daughter’s killer a message.
“I want the beast that took my daughter away from me to know, and have no doubt whatsoever, that he is safer inside,” she said.
“And I will pray every single night that each and every one of his repulsive fantasies come true for him in there … everything he wanted to do to her.”
The grieving mother, who “prays” that prosecutors appeal the sentence, said she’d been “gagged” from speaking out for the past three years to give her daughter’s killer judicial fairness.
But outside court, she lashed former Premier Dan Andrews, Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes and the police commissioner for the “red carpet they laid out … because of the failures of the system”, and the promises made in a bid to change stalking laws.
“There were lots of promises made, none of them honoured, all of them to look the part … and then dishonour my daughter in this way,” she said.
“These politicians are only interested in helping when they see numbers, nothing else.”
An inquiry into stalking laws was sparked by Ms Manno’s death, with the Victorian Law Reform Commission’s report tabled in Parliament in September 2022.
But the 46 recommendations made following the inquiry are yet to be adopted, with Ms Di Mauro angered that electronic monitoring of dangerous stalkers wasn’t among them.
In response to Ms Di Mauro’s comments, Ms Symes said: “I stand by my promise to Celeste’s family that we will introduce change that reflects the seriousness of this crime”.
“This work is complex and takes time to make sure we best protect victims of stalking,” she said.
Ms Symes said the government was “continuing to work on how we can better protect victims of stalking — because we know that stalking can cause lasting harm to survivors’ mental and physical health and can escalate to more serious offending”.
Ms Manno’s family brought her urn – a crystal shape lit with a bright blue light – to the Supreme Court to learn her killer’s fate.
Sako, 39, who pleaded guilty to murder, held a blank face when he was told he would be eligible for parole in 2050.
Justice Jane Dixon’s declaration she wasn’t giving Sako life led to audible gasps from Ms Manno’s family.
Her Honour found that Sako’s severe personality disorder somewhat reduced his culpability and that his guilty plea attracted a sentencing discount, even though his prospects of rehabilitation were “limited”.
Her Honour said it was “very clear Celeste was an extraordinary young woman who, until her untimely death, had the world at her feet”.
“Celeste deserved life but you decided otherwise,” she said.
Sako’s sentence marks the end of a three-year court saga as the killer refused to take responsibility for Ms Manno’s murder in the early morning of November 16, 2020.
Just hours before she died, Ms Manno, 23, had posted photos for the first time on her Instagram page with her boyfriend Chris Ridsdale, completely unaware that the blocked Sako could see her profile from a fake account.
Ms Manno had done everything she could to stop the relentless campaign of unwelcome messages from Sako, who for a short time had been in her team at Serco call centre before he was fired.
She showed him kindness on his final day in June 2019, when she walked him from the building, where he gave her an unwanted kiss on the cheek goodbye.
Her act of decency led to a 12-month wave of increasingly intense and vulgar messages, despite her endless requests for him to stop.
It was only after Ms Manno and her mother went to police for an intervention order in July 2020 that his contact finally ceased.
But Sako’s stalking of Ms Manno didn’t end – he continued to monitor her from a fake Instagram page where he posed as a young woman, tracked down Ms Manno’s home address in Mernda and even the floor plan of her house to find her bedroom.
Just before 4am on November 16, he took a hammer and knife and drove to her house, where he smashed through her window and stole her life in an attack that lasted just a few minutes.
Sako attempted to get a mental impairment defence, blaming his crime on an invented figure called ‘Isha’, an ugly pointy-toothed man he said sat next to him on the drive to Mernda and coaxed him to “end it”.
But four psychiatrists rejected his story, finding he faked hallucinations because he “didn’t want to be seen as a monster”.
To Ms Manno’s family, that’s exactly what he is – a Beast that took their beautiful Celeste at the age of just 23, with 23 cuts from his blade.
Had he not pleaded guilty, Justice Dixon said she would have sentenced him to 40 years jail, with a non parole period of 36 years.
Murder carries a maximum of life in jail, with a standard sentence of 25 years.
Heartbreaking memorial for Celeste
Celeste Manno’s devastated family and friends “gathered in grief” at her grave on Thursday night, furious the murderer of a “beautiful, loving soul” had avoided life in jail.
Delivering tight hugs and bouquets of flowers, Ms Manno’s relatives shared teary sentiments as they attempted to grapple with the sentence handed to Sako.
About 20 people placed camp chairs around Ms Manno’s grave — which was covered in bouquets, candles and twinkling lights — to watch a video in her memory.
Heartbroken mother Aggie Di Mauro sat front and centre, surrounded by her loved ones.
“We had initially planned to honour Celeste’s memory, her beautiful loving soul and commemorate the justice we thought we were going to receive today,” Ms Di Mauro said after the hearing this afternoon.
“Unfortunately, we are still gathering there, but … in grief.”
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