Speaker 1: Melbourne is located in the southeastern corner of Australia. It's
Speaker 1: a big city, humming with activity at all ours in
Speaker 1: the day and night. On the outer fringe of Melbourne's
Speaker 1: northern suburbs lies Murnda. It's a quiet, modern neighborhood that's
Speaker 1: still holds the imprint of its rural past. It started
Speaker 1: out as farmland, known in the eighteen hundreds as Merangue South.
Speaker 1: It was the land of orchards and sheep stations before
Speaker 1: it took the name Mirnda in nineteen thirteen. By the
Speaker 1: two thousands, Murnda had transformed. It was now one of
Speaker 1: the faster growing areas in Victoria. Farm blocks gave way
Speaker 1: to neat rows of family homes, school supermarkets, and a
Speaker 1: shiny new train line followed, connecting the community to the
Speaker 1: wider city. One night in November of twenty and twenty,
Speaker 1: Aggimano was asleep in her bed in a tidy house
Speaker 1: nestled in one of the new estates of Mirnda. The
Speaker 1: home was still in dark until a noise shoulted her awake.
Speaker 1: She blinked, unsure if it had come from the world
Speaker 1: outside or from inside her dreams, but then she heard
Speaker 1: something else. It sounded like somebody gasping for breath. This
Speaker 1: wasn't a bad dream, It was real. But the nightmare
Speaker 1: had only just begun. It was in the suburb of
Speaker 1: Mirnda that Celeste Mano had built a life. She was
Speaker 1: born on the twenty second of November nineteen ninety six,
Speaker 1: the only daughter of Aggie Tomorrow and Tony Mano. From
Speaker 1: the very beginning, she was there light. The name Celeste
Speaker 1: had been chosen deliberately lovingly for its celestial meaning. Though
Speaker 1: her parents would eventually separate, their bond with Celeste remained unwavering.
Speaker 1: She grew up surrounded by love from her parents and
Speaker 1: her two brothers, Alessandro and Jaden, the man who household
Speaker 1: life was one of tradition. Evenings often meant floor or
Speaker 1: dusted aprons and the scent of homemade pizza wafting from
Speaker 1: the kitchen. The easy Sunday afternoons were spent lounging by
Speaker 1: the swimming pool. To Jade and her older brother, Celeste
Speaker 1: was more than a sister. She was a guiding force.
Speaker 1: He later recollected. She was the most intelligent one of
Speaker 1: all of us, the best of all of us. There
Speaker 1: isn't a soul on this earth, who could ever say
Speaker 1: a bad thing? When Jane became a father, Celeste embraced
Speaker 1: the role of ante with joy. Only wasn't just important
Speaker 1: to her, it was everything. She radiated a kind of
Speaker 1: grace that felt rare in her generation. Those who loved
Speaker 1: her said that she was elegant, thoughtful, even a little
Speaker 1: old fashioned in a world that often rushes past tenderness.
Speaker 1: Her friend and colleague, Bertine Rash, who remembered her as
Speaker 1: a kind, loving, great friend to many. Celeste's bedroom wall
Speaker 1: bore a whiteboard filled with motivational quotes and gentle reminders.
Speaker 1: Each morning, before anything else, she would pause to read them.
Speaker 1: At the very top was a single word, smile, and
Speaker 1: she meant it. To Celeste, a smile wasn't just an expression,
Speaker 1: It was a way to writeen up somebody else's day.
Speaker 1: Her godmother, Pinya, described her as the sweetest, kindest person
Speaker 1: you could ever meet, and that kindness wasn't surface level,
Speaker 1: it was deeply ingrained in the way that she moved
Speaker 1: through the world. For five years, Celeste had volunteered with
Speaker 1: Seven Cups of Tea, an online platform that provides emotional
Speaker 1: support to people experiencing mental health challenges. The work was
Speaker 1: hard and it was unpaid, but Celeste never treated it
Speaker 1: like a burden. She carried that same empathy into her
Speaker 1: professional life. After completing a criminology and psychology degree at
Speaker 1: r MIT University, she accepted a job at a call
Speaker 1: center in mill Park operated by Circo Asia Pacific. For many,
Speaker 1: the call center was just a job, a stepping stone,
Speaker 1: a paycheck. But Celeste was different. She brought a quiet
Speaker 1: brilliance to the workplace. Her college said that she had
Speaker 1: a positive energy. She was wise beyond her years, so
Speaker 1: much so that she was quickly promoted to team leader.
Speaker 1: But in that same workplace, Celeste had also caught the
Speaker 1: attention of someone else, someone who was watching. Among the
Speaker 1: team members who briefly worked under Celeste's supervision at Circo
Speaker 1: was a man named Louis Seco. He was thirty five
Speaker 1: years old, more than a decade older than Celeste, and
Speaker 1: in many ways his story was won shaped by displacement
Speaker 1: and disappointment. Seco had been born in Iraq. During the
Speaker 1: oppressive reign of Saddam Hussein. In nineteen ninety two, he
Speaker 1: and his family fled to Australia in search of something better.
Speaker 1: He was the eldest of five children, and with that
Speaker 1: came pressure, some spoken, some not. His younger brother Lauren,
Speaker 1: would later make headlines after being sentenced to six years
Speaker 1: in a youth justice center for the manslaughter of twenty
Speaker 1: two year old Matthew macavoy. Leais on the surface had
Speaker 1: always appeared to be the opposite. He was studious and quiet.
Speaker 1: He excelled in maths and earned his way into university.
Speaker 1: But somewhere along that path something began to fracture. His
Speaker 1: own family would later describe him as a loner and
Speaker 1: an introvert. Social cues escaped him, human connection seemed to
Speaker 1: slip through his fingers. A university, he struggled. He felt
Speaker 1: invisible and rejected, and that sense of isolation seemed to
Speaker 1: harden something inside of him. Work didn't provide the redemption
Speaker 1: he may have hoped for. He drifted in and out
Speaker 1: of retailed jobs, often unemployed, living on the fringe of
Speaker 1: professional life until April of two thousand and nineteen, when
Speaker 1: he joined SO and was assigned to the team led
Speaker 1: by Celeste Mano. She treated him just like she treated
Speaker 1: everybody else, with respect, with professionalism with the kind of
Speaker 1: quiet empathy that came so naturally to her. But Luis
Speaker 1: Siecho saw something else in her, something that was never there.
Speaker 1: Just two months into the job, Seko was fired for
Speaker 1: ongoing performance issues. On his last day, Celeste walked him
Speaker 1: to the door, shook his hand, and wished him well.
Speaker 1: It was a simple, courteous goodbye, the kind of moment
Speaker 1: that might be forgotten by most, but for Seku it
Speaker 1: became something else entirely. He thanked her for her kindness,
Speaker 1: and then, without warning, he leaned in and kissed her
Speaker 1: on the cheek. Celeste was startled. The gesture had crossed
Speaker 1: a line. It made her deeply uncomfortable, but she didn't
Speaker 1: dwell on it. She moved on, or at least she
Speaker 1: tried to. A week later, a message arrived in her Instagram.
Speaker 1: I'm in box. It was from Louis Seko. He thanked
Speaker 1: her again for how she handled his termination, and then,
Speaker 1: without warning, he declared his love for her. He wrote,
Speaker 1: to put an end to my suffering. Can you be
Speaker 1: direct with me and just tell me how you feel
Speaker 1: towards me. Celeste was gracious, she always was. She responded, Hi, Louis,
Speaker 1: those are really sweet words, and I appreciate you saying
Speaker 1: all of this. I'm surprised to read this as it's
Speaker 1: all new to me. As much as I appreciate it,
Speaker 1: I only feel a professional way towards you, and I
Speaker 1: wish you all the best towards your new job and journey.
Speaker 1: But Louie didn't go away. The messages kept coming. At
Speaker 1: first they were filled with admiration, odd in tone but
Speaker 1: not yet overly threatening, but it was clear he wasn't
Speaker 1: letting go. Celeste's comfort grew, and eventually she told him plainly,
Speaker 1: I would really appreciate if you could stop contacting me,
Speaker 1: as this is making me very uncomfortable. Seco replied with
Speaker 1: something cold and cutting. My impression of you has changed.
Speaker 1: You're no different to the majority of women. I will
Speaker 1: remember you in this lesson for all my life and
Speaker 1: devote every ounce of energy I have to climbing up
Speaker 1: and proving to the world that I'm somebody. This is
Speaker 1: my promise to you and final contact to you. But
Speaker 1: it was in his final contact. The message has continued,
Speaker 1: and when Celeste blocked him, another account popped up, then another,
Speaker 1: and another and another. Over the span of roughly a year,
Speaker 1: Saeco would send more than one hundred and forty messages
Speaker 1: to Celeste across various fake profiles. Would have begun as
Speaker 1: an awkward infactuation had spiraled into something far darker, a fixation,
Speaker 1: an obsession, and Saeco knew it. In one message, he admitted,
Speaker 1: this obsession with you is an addictive and destructing feeling,
Speaker 1: interfering with my ability to concentrate, deal with others, and
Speaker 1: go about my daily routine. Three out of four US
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Speaker 1: In another he wrote, I'm sorry, but I can't stop
Speaker 1: thinking about you. I've never felt this way about anyone
Speaker 1: in my life. I'm totally captivated by you. You're all
Speaker 1: I think about. And then in December of twenty to nineteen,
Speaker 1: the tone of the message is shifted. Leisieko started to
Speaker 1: send sexually explicit, derogatory, and violent messages to Celeste. So
Speaker 1: let's confided in those closest to her, her friends, her family,
Speaker 1: even her colleagues, and when the anxiety became too much,
Speaker 1: she went to the police. But what she was told
Speaker 1: was chilling in its indifference. There was nothing they could do,
Speaker 1: Seco hadn't made direct threats, no physical crime had been committed.
Speaker 1: The advice she was given was to shut down her
Speaker 1: social media, start afresh, delete and block her mother Agi
Speaker 1: would later say the suggestion was to delete and block him,
Speaker 1: or start a new account, or get off social media,
Speaker 1: but Celeste resisted, Why should she be the one to disappear,
Speaker 1: Why should she erase parts of her life because of him?
Speaker 1: She left the police station shaken and still unprotected. The
Speaker 1: messages just kept coming. One day, Celeste told Teko both
Speaker 1: my family and police have been made aware of the situation,
Speaker 1: but that didn't deter him. He responded, I feel a
Speaker 1: little bit hurt that you would go to that extent, Celest.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't hurt a soul, especially you. Why do you
Speaker 1: see me as a threat? It's a genuine question that
Speaker 1: I may learn from by getting your answer. He just
Speaker 1: kept going, even when Aggie warned him to stop contacting
Speaker 1: her daughter. She messaged him saying, we will be going
Speaker 1: to the police again today. I've read very disgusting messages
Speaker 1: you've sent my daughter out. Dare you Sego replied, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: I didn't know what I was doing was disgusting. But
Speaker 1: I will stop contacting Celeste if that's all she wishes.
Speaker 1: But he didn't stop. Celeste became hyper aware of her surroundings.
Speaker 1: After every shift at Circle, her coworkers would walk her
Speaker 1: to her car. They checked the parking lot, scanned the shadows.
Speaker 1: She told her supervisor, he's really going to kill me.
Speaker 1: Whenever celestrove home, she would always call her mother and
Speaker 1: stay on the line. She had a plan. If she
Speaker 1: ever thought that she was being followed, she'd drive straight
Speaker 1: to the police station. Her mother later recollected Celeste was
Speaker 1: always one hundred percent sure he didn't know where we lived,
Speaker 1: but she checked her rare view mirrors constantly. Eventually Celeste
Speaker 1: was able to apply for an intervention order. It was
Speaker 1: granted an interim one, a piece of paper meant to
Speaker 1: create distance, but Celeste didn't feel safe. She knew what
Speaker 1: many victims of stalking knew all too well, that court
Speaker 1: orders only mattered to those who choose to obey them.
Speaker 1: After the intervention order was granted, a hush fell over
Speaker 1: Celeste's inbox. For the first time in months. There was
Speaker 1: no new messages, no disturbing DMS popping up under fake names,
Speaker 1: no explicit rants, no threats, wrapped in declarations of obsession.
Speaker 1: There was finally silence. Her mother, Aggie, recalled the change
Speaker 1: in her daughter's mood. My daughter felt safer. I thought
Speaker 1: hopefully it had scared him and maybe he REALI this
Speaker 1: was serious and he needed to forget about Celeste. For
Speaker 1: a moment, it felt like they could finally breathe again,
Speaker 1: like the system had worked the way it was supposed to.
Speaker 1: But the silence didn't last. Not long after, the messages
Speaker 1: started again. This time the tone was pleading. Lay Seko
Speaker 1: message Celeste to beg her to drop the intervention order.
Speaker 1: He insisted he didn't understand that what he had done
Speaker 1: was wrong. He said he was confused that he meant
Speaker 1: no harm. I would never hurt a soul, he wrote.
Speaker 1: He asked why she had treated him like a threat,
Speaker 1: but Celeste saw through the performance. She didn't respond, She
Speaker 1: didn't engage. She went straight to the police, and this
Speaker 1: time Seko was arrested. When confronted with the reality of
Speaker 1: what he had done, Seko broke down. He threatened to
Speaker 1: take his own life. But it wasn't remorse, It was manipulation.
Speaker 1: It was another tactic, another attempt to claw back control
Speaker 1: over somebody who had made it clear she wanted nothing
Speaker 1: to do with him. Sego was charged with breaching the
Speaker 1: intervention order, but he was then released on summons. Celeste
Speaker 1: tried not to let it rattle her. She had already
Speaker 1: given too much of her energy, her sense of security,
Speaker 1: and her peace of mind to this man. So she
Speaker 1: carried all with life. It was November of twenty and twenty,
Speaker 1: and Celeste was days away from celebrating her twenty fourth birthday.
Speaker 1: It was something she had genuinely been looking forward to
Speaker 1: her family, her friends, the coconut cake her mom promised
Speaker 1: to be She was also looking forward to spending more
Speaker 1: time with her baby niece, Daisy. Because of the COVID restrictions,
Speaker 1: she hadn't gotten there much. But things were aasing. It
Speaker 1: felt like the beginning of normalcy of life moving forward,
Speaker 1: and Celeste was in love. Her boyfriend, Chris Resdale, had
Speaker 1: brought a new light into her life. He was kind, thought, awful,
Speaker 1: and safe. Celest had already told her friends and family
Speaker 1: about him, but now she was ready to tell the world.
Speaker 1: The weekend before her birthday, Celeste and Chris took a
Speaker 1: photograph together. They were beaming, sitting side by side with
Speaker 1: arms around one another in a local pub. Chris later
Speaker 1: remembered we talked and joked about how this would be
Speaker 1: the first picture of us together on her social media
Speaker 1: and she was so excited to share it with everyone.
Speaker 1: Celeste filled out her phone, opened Instagram and uploaded the photograph.
Speaker 1: It was a simple act that many of us do
Speaker 1: without thinking, but within ours, celest would be dead. It
Speaker 1: was just after four a m. On the sixteenth of
Speaker 1: November twenty and twenty, less than twenty four hours after
Speaker 1: Celeste had shared that photograph with her boyfriend Chris. She
Speaker 1: had gone to bed that night smiling, unaware that somewhere
Speaker 1: across the city, a man she barely knew was staring
Speaker 1: at that same image with something far more dangerous than heartbreak.
Speaker 1: Lay Seco had seen the post. He had saved the
Speaker 1: photograph to his phone. Then he'd searched for Chris's name
Speaker 1: online on Google linked In, even tracing the location of
Speaker 1: the pub where the photo had been taken. In the
Speaker 1: early hours of that morning, under the cover of night,
Speaker 1: Seco left his home in Roxburgh Park and began half
Speaker 1: hour drive to Mirnda. The streets were still the world asleep,
Speaker 1: but Sego wasn't aimless. He was on a mission. Once
Speaker 1: he arrived at Celeste's quiet suburban street, he didn't park
Speaker 1: straight away. He circled the block over and over again,
Speaker 1: like a predator, waiting for the right moment. Then he
Speaker 1: stopped the car. He got out. He ran to the
Speaker 1: house and scaled the side fence like he had done
Speaker 1: it before. Peering through her bedroom window, he could see
Speaker 1: Celeste fast asleep, unaware that danger had already stepped inside
Speaker 1: her world. Then, without hesitation, he smashed the window with
Speaker 1: a hammer. Celeste was jolted awake by the sound of
Speaker 1: shattering glass. She didn't even have time to scream. Within seconds,
Speaker 1: Sega was inside her bedroom. He lunged at her, armed
Speaker 1: with a kitchen knife, and began stabbing her with terrifying force.
Speaker 1: Celeste fought back with everything she had. Her arms bore
Speaker 1: defensive wounds, but she was ambush, trapped, and outmatched. Just
Speaker 1: next door, her mother, Aggie, stirred from sleep. She thought
Speaker 1: she'd heard something, footsteps, a thud. She sat up in bed,
Speaker 1: unsure if it was real or just part of a dream,
Speaker 1: But then she heard heard it gasping, she raced from
Speaker 1: her bedroom into Celestes and then froze. Her daughter was
Speaker 1: lying on the floor, surrounded by a pull of blood.
Speaker 1: Her eyes were open but vacant. Her chest was rising
Speaker 1: and falling with a fragile, strained rhythm. Each breath was
Speaker 1: a struggle. Stab wounds covered her body and face. Aggie
Speaker 1: dropped to the floor beside her, cradled her and called zero,
Speaker 1: zero zero. She performed CPR and mouth to mouth, but
Speaker 1: each breath became weaker, and then there was stillness. While
Speaker 1: Aggie was desperately trying to see of her daughter, Secu
Speaker 1: had already fled from the scene. He drove straight to
Speaker 1: the mourned the police station. There, he approached an officer
Speaker 1: calmly and just said two words, She's dead. He gave
Speaker 1: them Celeste's a dress. Then he asked the officer to
Speaker 1: shoot him. By the time paramedics arrived at the house,
Speaker 1: celest Mano was already gone. She had been stabbed a
Speaker 1: total of twenty three times, with a fatal wound through
Speaker 1: her heart. The family home was enveloped in crime scene
Speaker 1: tape as detectives and crimescene investigators descended on the scene,
Speaker 1: police courtoned off the man of residents. Inside, investigators took
Speaker 1: photographs of the bedroom, of the shattered window, the bloodstained sheets,
Speaker 1: and they bagged the kitchen knife in the evidence. It
Speaker 1: had been left behind by Seko as he made his getaway,
Speaker 1: and slowly and carefully they carried Celeste's body out of
Speaker 1: the home. Outside, her mother, Aggie, stood frozen, and then
Speaker 1: she broke. She ran towards the tape, screaming, trying to
Speaker 1: reach her daughter one last time. Detectives held their back,
Speaker 1: their arms around her as she sobbed on the law
Speaker 1: on how did I not protect her? She cried, There
Speaker 1: are no words for that kind of guilt, no comfort
Speaker 1: strong enough to reach your mother in that moment. Later,
Speaker 1: Aggie would say, I couldn't believe what I walked into.
Speaker 1: You were lifeless. I'm never going to forget that image
Speaker 1: in my head, the look in your eyes, so distant,
Speaker 1: so far away. I knew you were gone, but I
Speaker 1: didn't want to believe what I was saying. The community
Speaker 1: didn't need the full story to feel the weight of
Speaker 1: what had happened. Blood was still visible on the side
Speaker 1: gate from where Seko had fled. News crews gathered outside
Speaker 1: and neighbors stared in disbelief and beneath the growing pile
Speaker 1: of flowers and candles, a makeshift memorial was beginning to
Speaker 1: take shape.
Speaker 2: Morbidology listeners, if you're ready for even more evidence driven
Speaker 2: content with razor sharp storytelling, we'd love to introduce you
Speaker 2: to Kill Her Heart to Hearts, a narrative true crime podcast.
Speaker 2: Asked we center victims and families, build timelines from reputable
Speaker 2: primary sources, and keep a steady documentary tone with just
Speaker 2: enough dark edged humor that never cheapens the story. We
Speaker 2: explore how the evidence fits and how it doesn't, where
Speaker 2: the leads went and where it all fell into place,
Speaker 2: and what that all meant for the people involved and
Speaker 2: the communities left behind. Good introductory episodes to start with
Speaker 2: include in Cell, In Ditches or The Acid King, three
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Speaker 2: Hearts and follow Today wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1: As details emerged about Saiko's long campaign of stalking and harassment,
Speaker 1: public horror turned to outrage. He had been reported he'd
Speaker 1: been charged, he had an intervene in order against him,
Speaker 1: and yet he was free. Celeste's father, Tony didn't hold
Speaker 1: back as he said, it's got to be changed. It
Speaker 1: won't bring her back, but it's got to be changed.
Speaker 1: Too many scenarios have already happened. What's it going to
Speaker 1: take for the government to listen. It's not right. It's
Speaker 1: got to stop. Her brother Jaden, echoed that same heartbreak
Speaker 1: as he said, we need the government to listen. Everyone
Speaker 1: should have the right to live their lives, in their homes,
Speaker 1: in their bedrooms, on the streets. No one should be scared.
Speaker 1: In the days that followed, a petition was launched calling
Speaker 1: for tougher laws to protect victims of stalking and violence.
Speaker 1: It read, in part, although there are laws in place
Speaker 1: and intervention orders can be granted, it's clear that this
Speaker 1: is not sufficient and more needs to be done. Far
Speaker 1: too many women have lost their lives at the hands
Speaker 1: of perpetrators. More than eight thousand people signed their names.
Speaker 1: The petition was tabled in state parliament, but for Celeste's
Speaker 1: famil that was only the beginning. On the nineteenth of November,
Speaker 1: just three days after the murderluais Seka was moved from
Speaker 1: hospital to the police headquarters. He was charged with one
Speaker 1: kind of murder, and while the legal process was moving
Speaker 1: slowly forward, Celeste's loved ones had something for more devastating
Speaker 1: to face saying goodbye. Towards the end of the month,
Speaker 1: mourners gathered at the Whittlesey Funeral Home for Celeste's service.
Speaker 1: It was a crisp day and crief clung in the air.
Speaker 1: Her white casket was carried by her father, her brothers,
Speaker 1: and her boyfriend Chris. Inside. Loved one stood up one
Speaker 1: by one to speak about Celeste. Her mother, Aggie, delivered
Speaker 1: a heartbreaking eulogy. I can't imagine the horror you must
Speaker 1: have felt to have been awoken by some monster. I
Speaker 1: didn't get there in time, and I'm so angry at myself.
Speaker 1: I am so sorry. I am ashamed of myself because
Speaker 1: you believed your mum would always protect. Aggie said that
Speaker 1: despite everything Saco had done, Celess still had compassion for him,
Speaker 1: She'd even felt sorry for him, but that compassion had
Speaker 1: been met with violence, and Aggie's voice broke as she said,
Speaker 1: you forgave everything, and everyone's sweety, but not me. I'm
Speaker 1: not forgiving I want him to burn in hell. Her
Speaker 1: younger brother, Alessandro, said he would never again play a
Speaker 1: basketball game without imagining her cheering from the stands. He said,
Speaker 1: you're my sister, my best friend, and most importantly, the
Speaker 1: most amazing, beautiful person in my life. I can't believe
Speaker 1: you're gone, and I can't hug and kiss you every
Speaker 1: day after you come home from work. Jade and the
Speaker 1: eldest said that the grief they carried was immeasurable. He said,
Speaker 1: we're the luckiest people on earth to have had you
Speaker 1: in our lives at all. You were your family's rock,
Speaker 1: pillar of strength and protector. Tony her father, had his
Speaker 1: words read aloud by someone else. He couldn't bring himself
Speaker 1: to speak. Nothing in this earth will ever be able
Speaker 1: to replace you, he said. In the months after Celeste's murder,
Speaker 1: her family's grave transformed into a powerful force for change.
Speaker 1: Agi became the face of the movement. She demanded for
Speaker 1: better protection for women like Celeste, women who had done
Speaker 1: everything right, who had reported their stalkers, who had followed
Speaker 1: the rules. Aggie pushed for legislation that would ensure high
Speaker 1: risk stalkers were no longer traded as low threat nuisances.
Speaker 1: She called for violent perpetrators to be fitted with GPS
Speaker 1: trackers and for breaches of intervention orders to carry immediate
Speaker 1: jail time. Her voice shook as she stood before Victoria
Speaker 1: Parliament and said, I visit my daughter's grave every day,
Speaker 1: but I can't talk to her because I don't know
Speaker 1: what to say. We felt safe. I thought we were safe.
Speaker 1: There may be laws on legislations out there, but they
Speaker 1: are not being addressed. In response, the Victorian government launched
Speaker 1: an urgent review into intervention orders. At the same time,
Speaker 1: Victoria Police announced in an internal investigation into how officers
Speaker 1: had handled Celeste's case. Aggie was clear eyed about the failures.
Speaker 1: I hold two very responsible for Celeste, first as Victoria Police,
Speaker 1: because if they had done certain things differently, maybe Segu
Speaker 1: could have been locked up before he did anything. Second
Speaker 1: to Seku himself. But while Aggie was fighting for reform,
Speaker 1: the man who murdered her daughter was locked in a
Speaker 1: legal limbo. While on remand in a protective custody unit,
Speaker 1: Luay Seko attempted to take his own life in the
Speaker 1: exercise yard. He was rushed to hospital, then placed in
Speaker 1: an observation cell. He was under twenty four hour monitoring
Speaker 1: and remained isolated from the other prisoners. In September, Sagu
Speaker 1: appeared via video link and formally pleaded not guilty to
Speaker 1: the murder. His lawyer Sam Norton said that the play
Speaker 1: was based on medical opinion and insanity defense was clearly
Speaker 1: on the table, but by October that medical opinion was
Speaker 1: deemed inconclusive. The defense requested a second evaluation, calling it
Speaker 1: a very complex situation in regard to Seco's mental state.
Speaker 1: Doctor Andrew Carroll later concluded that Sekah was unfit to
Speaker 1: stand trial and that he would likely remain unfit for
Speaker 1: at least the next twelve months. That ruling was devastating
Speaker 1: because if a judge agreed, Seko wouldn't face a murder trial. Instead,
Speaker 1: he would be moved to a secure psychiatric facility, and
Speaker 1: under Australian law, if he were ever deemed well enough,
Speaker 1: he could be quietly released back into the community, sometimes
Speaker 1: within years. The Mano family feared what that could mean,
Speaker 1: that Celeste killer might never be held accountable in court,
Speaker 1: that her death would go untried and unpunished. As the
Speaker 1: case stagnated, Victoria Police rolled out a new tool called
Speaker 1: the Screening Assessment for stalking and harassment. It allowed officers
Speaker 1: to better identify red flags like obsessive behaviors, past criminal charges,
Speaker 1: and patterns of escalation. It was designed to stop stalkers
Speaker 1: before they reached the point of violence. If someone was
Speaker 1: assessed as high risk, they would now be subject to
Speaker 1: more intensive police scrutiny. But for Celeste and her family
Speaker 1: it had come too late. The review into her murder
Speaker 1: revealed what many already suspected, that stalking allegations in Victoria
Speaker 1: were often trivialized and victims like Celeste were left to
Speaker 1: fend for themselves. Instead of police filing orders, the burden
Speaker 1: was on victims to apply for them. Many never did,
Speaker 1: many didn't know how to, and even when they did,
Speaker 1: enforcement was inconsistent the best. The Victorian Law Reform Commission
Speaker 1: issued forty six recommendations in total, including the police initiate
Speaker 1: intervention orders on behalf of victims, that officers received better
Speaker 1: training in recognizing and responding to stalking, that the overwhelmed
Speaker 1: intervention order system be overhauled, and that the public be
Speaker 1: better educated on what stalking actually entails. All of these steps,
Speaker 1: it was hoped, would prevent another tragedy like Celestes, but
Speaker 1: as the reforms moved forward, Seko's case remained in limbo.
Speaker 1: In May, two expert psychiatrists gave conflicting assessments. One believed
Speaker 1: Sego was fit to stand trial, the other disagreed. He
Speaker 1: was still in isolation, still refusing to take his medication,
Speaker 1: still claiming the prison staff were trying to kill him.
Speaker 1: One psychiatrist warned that if Seko simply agreed to take
Speaker 1: the medication he was rejecting, he would likely become competent
Speaker 1: enough to face court, But for now he remained locked away,
Speaker 1: and the decision on his fitness to stand trial rested
Speaker 1: solely with the judge. If that judge ruled he was unfit,
Speaker 1: Seco could be detained under the Mental Health Act, but
Speaker 1: that detention wouldn't be permanent. He could be released in secret,
Speaker 1: with no accountability and no justice, and that to Celeste's family,
Speaker 1: was an unbearable prospect. In March of twenty and twenty three,
Speaker 1: more than two years after Celeste was taken, Leay Seko
Speaker 1: finally changed his play. He appeared in court and pleaded
Speaker 1: guilty to the murder of Celeste Mannu, her mother Agi
Speaker 1: Saj just feed away from the man who had taken
Speaker 1: her daughter's life. She never looked away from him. Afterwards,
Speaker 1: she said, I can't believe that this damon was actually
Speaker 1: within reach. I just wanted him to feel that I
Speaker 1: never took my eyes from him. Seko never once looked back.
Speaker 1: The guilty plague came after a long and winding legal process.
Speaker 1: The previously scheduled fitness hearing had been vacated after further
Speaker 1: psychiatric evaluations determined that Seko was fit to stand trial.
Speaker 1: During those evaluations, Sego had attempted to claim that a
Speaker 1: hallucination named Esha had appeared in his car that night,
Speaker 1: telling him he needed to act like a criminal and endeth.
Speaker 1: He described Asha as a strange man with a big
Speaker 1: nose and large ears who coaxed him into the attack.
Speaker 1: But the psychiatrist unanimously concluded that Sega was faking. They
Speaker 1: noted that he exaggerated his symptoms and made inconsistent statements.
Speaker 1: In one disturbing comment, Seko remarked that Celeste appeared larger
Speaker 1: than he remembered. He also claimed that when he saw
Speaker 1: the photo of Celeste and Chris, he believed that Chris's
Speaker 1: smile was laughing when niaclay at him. Despite the theatrics,
Speaker 1: the professionals agreed Sego was not suffering from psychosis at
Speaker 1: the time of the murder. His own defense attorney, Sam
Speaker 1: Norton conceded that the mental impairment defense could no longer
Speaker 1: be advanced, and faced with no other legal option, Seco
Speaker 1: pleaded guilty, but just three months later he changed his
Speaker 1: mind again. In a letter to the Supreme Court, he
Speaker 1: asked to dump his lawyer and revoke his guilty play.
Speaker 1: He wrote the last hearing where I pleaded guilty, that
Speaker 1: decision was made on the day of the hearing. I
Speaker 1: felt I was under pressure and still haven't had my
Speaker 1: answers met to Celeste's family. It wasn't much of a surprise,
Speaker 1: Aggie said, He's been playing the system for two and
Speaker 1: a half years because of all the loopholes available to him.
Speaker 1: Seko then retained a new defense attorney, Tim Marsh, who
Speaker 1: requested yet another mental competency evaluation, But days later Marsh
Speaker 1: informed the court that Sego no longer wished to revoke
Speaker 1: his guilty play. The delays only continued in January twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four, just as the case appeared ready to move forward,
Speaker 1: Sego dumped his defense attorney again, this time declaring he
Speaker 1: would represent himself at a pre sentencing hearing. He addressed
Speaker 1: the court directly. He claimed that his former legal team
Speaker 1: had undermined him and that he disputed the forensic evidence
Speaker 1: regarding Celeste's injuries. In one of the most shocking moments
Speaker 1: in court, Seko said, I know and believe I only
Speaker 1: inflicted two wounds and that the twenty one other wounds
Speaker 1: were a result of class inflicted injuries. It was a cruel,
Speaker 1: delusional statement, and it devastated celeste family once again, forcing
Speaker 1: them to listen as Seko tried to rewrite reality and
Speaker 1: reduce the brutality of what he had done. The legal
Speaker 1: delays had dragged on for years, but finally a sentencing
Speaker 1: date was approaching, and for the Manu family, after years
Speaker 1: of agony, justice was now within reach. The sentencing fates
Speaker 1: finally went ahead on the twenty ninth of January. The
Speaker 1: courtroom filled with celeste loved ones. The grief in the
Speaker 1: room was palpable. The court then heard details of the
Speaker 1: stalking campaign that escalated into murder, and once again the
Speaker 1: Seco clung to his delusions. He maintained that he had
Speaker 1: only stabbed Celeste twice, insisting that the remaining twenty one
Speaker 1: stab wounds had been caused by broken glass when he
Speaker 1: smashed through her bedroom window, But forensic pathologists doctor Paul
Speaker 1: Bedford firmly dismissed that claim. He told the court that
Speaker 1: no glass was found in Celeste's wounds and that each
Speaker 1: of the twenty three injuries had clearly been inflicted with
Speaker 1: a knife. When Seco began cross examining doctor Bedford, Celeste's
Speaker 1: family walked out of the courtroom. Security footage was then presented.
Speaker 1: It showed Seco running from his car to Celeste's front door,
Speaker 1: knife in hand. He disputed that as well. I say
Speaker 1: that I walked briskly, he told the court. Then came
Speaker 1: the testimony of doctor Rajen Darjy, a forensic psychiatrist who
Speaker 1: had assessed Seku. He testified that, in his opinion, Seco
Speaker 1: had been driven by jealous rage after saying a photo
Speaker 1: of Celeste with her new boyfriend, a photo that, in
Speaker 1: his words, was the straw that broke the camel's back.
Speaker 1: Doctor Dorgy diagnosed Sego with a severe personality disorder, depressive disorder,
Speaker 1: and body dysmorphia. He added, I've never seen anyone with
Speaker 1: such an extreme personality disorder who wasn't also psychopathic. He
Speaker 1: said that during the murder, Sego was not only filled
Speaker 1: with rage, but also wanted to erase the entire situation.
Speaker 1: That's why he committed the murder, in my view, he said.
Speaker 1: Doctor Georgie also testified that Sego posed a moderate to
Speaker 1: high risk of stalking again, and if he did, there
Speaker 1: was a high risk of serious violence. He said this
Speaker 1: risk extended even to female prison staff if they showed
Speaker 1: him kindness. He said, I'm not saying he will, but
Speaker 1: if dynamics similar to those that led to the offending
Speaker 1: happen in prison, you can see it happening. The court
Speaker 1: also heard chilling evidence of premeditation. Months before the murderer,
Speaker 1: Segu had purchased the knife, he had tracked down Celeste's home,
Speaker 1: examining floor plans to determine her bedroom, and repeatedly drove
Speaker 1: past the house to confirm her location. The prosecution argued
Speaker 1: that this demonstrated clear and deliberate planning. Then came the
Speaker 1: most emotional part of the hearing, the victim impact statements.
Speaker 1: Celeste's father Tony spoke about the life he had lost.
Speaker 1: The opportunity to walk her down the aisle and watch
Speaker 1: her grow into a mother was taken from me. My
Speaker 1: heart will be broken for the rest of my life.
Speaker 1: Her mother, Aggie, addressed the court next. She said said
Speaker 1: she didn't know him and she didn't want to know him.
Speaker 1: He was a co worker to her, nothing more. He
Speaker 1: wasn't a boy friend, an x or a friend. She
Speaker 1: didn't provoke or insult him. She had no interest in him,
Speaker 1: and he couldn't accept that. Aggie then turned to Sego directly.
Speaker 1: He sat at the defense table with his head bowed.
Speaker 1: She shouted at him to look at her, and then said,
Speaker 1: look ahead, I'm here. You've got the scoutless wonder. I
Speaker 1: hate you, and the only other person I hate more
Speaker 1: than you is me. You extinguished one of the only
Speaker 1: two reasons I lived for. She was everything to me,
Speaker 1: nothing to you. My Swede felt safe with me. I
Speaker 1: thought she was safe with me, but she wasn't. Was
Speaker 1: she I couldn't protect her from you. We had no
Speaker 1: idea You knew where we lived. The one place we
Speaker 1: felt safe was home. Seko began to shake his head
Speaker 1: and then in a disturbing scene, started violently hitting the
Speaker 1: side of his head with his own hand. Aggie looked
Speaker 1: directly at him and said, you're a bast You're an evil, repulsive,
Speaker 1: demonic bast. She begged Justice Stixon to impose a life
Speaker 1: sentence without parole. Justice Stixon then handed down her decision.
Speaker 1: She said she had taken the victim impact statements seriously.
Speaker 1: She acknowledged the immense pain that Siceco had caused. She
Speaker 1: noted the guilty plea, but emphasized that the murder was planned, premeditated,
Speaker 1: and carried out with chilling efficiency. She said, to Siko,
Speaker 1: you made sure you had the advantage over her. She
Speaker 1: acknowledged that he suffered from mental illness, including depression and
Speaker 1: a personality disorder, but she said these didn't excuse or
Speaker 1: philly explain what he had done to Celeste. Justice Dixon
Speaker 1: described the murder as utterly cowardly, and then, in a
Speaker 1: move that shocked many in the courtroom, she granted leniency.
Speaker 1: She cited Sicco's mental illness's grounds to moderate his sentence.
Speaker 1: Segu was then sentenced to thirty six years in prison
Speaker 1: with a non parole period of thirty years. He could
Speaker 1: have been sentenced to life without parole. The courtroom was stunned.
Speaker 1: Outside court, Aggie held the speech she had prepared, expecting
Speaker 1: a life sentence. She ripped it up instead. She said,
Speaker 1: we were forced to trust the system that we lost
Speaker 1: faith in three years ago. It failed Celess then, and
Speaker 1: it failed her again. Now today's outcome proves just how
Speaker 1: flawed the justice system is. Visibly distraught, she continued, protecting
Speaker 1: the community from monsters like siegu was clearly not a
Speaker 1: consideration of the court. It's outrageous, absolutely unbelievable that the
Speaker 1: court decided to grant him mercy, even though he showed
Speaker 1: Celeste nun quite clearly his right to mercy was more
Speaker 1: important than her right to life. Well, that is it
Speaker 1: for this episode of Morbidology. As always, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for listening, and i'd like to say a massive
Speaker 1: thank you to my new supporters up on Patreon, Linnea Whitney,
Speaker 1: Sarah Brittany, Tanika Barrett, and Juny. The link to Patreon
Speaker 1: is in the show notes. If you'd like to join,
Speaker 1: I upload Adfrey and early release episodes, behind the scenes
Speaker 1: bonus episodes of Morbidology plus, and I also send out
Speaker 1: merch along with a thank you card. Morbidology Plus is
Speaker 1: also available through Apple Subscriptions, where you get Adfrey, early
Speaker 1: release and bonus episodes. Remember to check us out at
Speaker 1: morbidology dot com for more information about this episode and
Speaker 1: to rate some true crime art. Until next time, take
Speaker 1: care of yourselves, stay safe, and have an amazing week