October 6, 2025 • 43 mins
A woman was asleep in her home in Mernda on the outer fringes of Melbourne, Australia, when she was jolted awake by a noise. She wasn’t sure if it had come from the world outside or from inside her dreams. Seconds later, she heard somebody gasping for breath.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Melbourne is located in the southeastern corner of Australia. It's
a big city, humming with activity at all ours in
the day and night. On the outer fringe of Melbourne's
northern suburbs lies Murnda. It's a quiet, modern neighborhood that's
still holds the imprint of its rural past. It started
out as farmland, known in the eighteen hundreds as Merangue South.
(01:07):
It was the land of orchards and sheep stations before
it took the name Mirnda in nineteen thirteen. By the
two thousands, Murnda had transformed. It was now one of
the faster growing areas in Victoria. Farm blocks gave way
to neat rows of family homes, school supermarkets, and a
shiny new train line followed, connecting the community to the
(01:29):
wider city. One night in November of twenty and twenty,
Aggimano was asleep in her bed in a tidy house
nestled in one of the new estates of Mirnda. The
home was still in dark until a noise shoulted her awake.
She blinked, unsure if it had come from the world
outside or from inside her dreams, but then she heard
(01:51):
something else. It sounded like somebody gasping for breath. This
wasn't a bad dream, It was real. But the nightmare
had only just begun. It was in the suburb of
(02:17):
Mirnda that Celeste Mano had built a life. She was
born on the twenty second of November nineteen ninety six,
the only daughter of Aggie Tomorrow and Tony Mano. From
the very beginning, she was there light. The name Celeste
had been chosen deliberately lovingly for its celestial meaning. Though
her parents would eventually separate, their bond with Celeste remained unwavering.
(02:42):
She grew up surrounded by love from her parents and
her two brothers, Alessandro and Jaden, the man who household
life was one of tradition. Evenings often meant floor or
dusted aprons and the scent of homemade pizza wafting from
the kitchen. The easy Sunday afternoons were spent lounging by
the swimming pool. To Jade and her older brother, Celeste
(03:04):
was more than a sister. She was a guiding force.
He later recollected. She was the most intelligent one of
all of us, the best of all of us. There
isn't a soul on this earth, who could ever say
a bad thing? When Jane became a father, Celeste embraced
the role of ante with joy. Only wasn't just important
(03:24):
to her, it was everything. She radiated a kind of
grace that felt rare in her generation. Those who loved
her said that she was elegant, thoughtful, even a little
old fashioned in a world that often rushes past tenderness.
Her friend and colleague, Bertine Rash, who remembered her as
a kind, loving, great friend to many. Celeste's bedroom wall
(03:46):
bore a whiteboard filled with motivational quotes and gentle reminders.
Each morning, before anything else, she would pause to read them.
At the very top was a single word, smile, and
she meant it. To Celeste, a smile wasn't just an expression,
It was a way to writeen up somebody else's day.
Her godmother, Pinya, described her as the sweetest, kindest person
(04:10):
you could ever meet, and that kindness wasn't surface level,
it was deeply ingrained in the way that she moved
through the world. For five years, Celeste had volunteered with
Seven Cups of Tea, an online platform that provides emotional
support to people experiencing mental health challenges. The work was
hard and it was unpaid, but Celeste never treated it
(04:31):
like a burden. She carried that same empathy into her
professional life. After completing a criminology and psychology degree at
r MIT University, she accepted a job at a call
center in mill Park operated by Circo Asia Pacific. For many,
the call center was just a job, a stepping stone,
(04:53):
a paycheck. But Celeste was different. She brought a quiet
brilliance to the workplace. Her college said that she had
a positive energy. She was wise beyond her years, so
much so that she was quickly promoted to team leader.
But in that same workplace, Celeste had also caught the
attention of someone else, someone who was watching. Among the
(05:28):
team members who briefly worked under Celeste's supervision at Circo
was a man named Louis Seco. He was thirty five
years old, more than a decade older than Celeste, and
in many ways his story was won shaped by displacement
and disappointment. Seco had been born in Iraq. During the
oppressive reign of Saddam Hussein. In nineteen ninety two, he
(05:49):
and his family fled to Australia in search of something better.
He was the eldest of five children, and with that
came pressure, some spoken, some not. His younger brother Lauren,
would later make headlines after being sentenced to six years
in a youth justice center for the manslaughter of twenty
two year old Matthew macavoy. Leais on the surface had
(06:13):
always appeared to be the opposite. He was studious and quiet.
He excelled in maths and earned his way into university.
But somewhere along that path something began to fracture. His
own family would later describe him as a loner and
an introvert. Social cues escaped him, human connection seemed to
(06:34):
slip through his fingers. A university, he struggled. He felt
invisible and rejected, and that sense of isolation seemed to
harden something inside of him. Work didn't provide the redemption
he may have hoped for. He drifted in and out
of retailed jobs, often unemployed, living on the fringe of
professional life until April of two thousand and nineteen, when
(06:59):
he joined SO and was assigned to the team led
by Celeste Mano. She treated him just like she treated
everybody else, with respect, with professionalism with the kind of
quiet empathy that came so naturally to her. But Luis
Siecho saw something else in her, something that was never there.
(07:20):
Just two months into the job, Seko was fired for
ongoing performance issues. On his last day, Celeste walked him
to the door, shook his hand, and wished him well.
It was a simple, courteous goodbye, the kind of moment
that might be forgotten by most, but for Seku it
became something else entirely. He thanked her for her kindness,
(07:41):
and then, without warning, he leaned in and kissed her
on the cheek. Celeste was startled. The gesture had crossed
a line. It made her deeply uncomfortable, but she didn't
dwell on it. She moved on, or at least she
tried to. A week later, a message arrived in her Instagram.
I'm in box. It was from Louis Seko. He thanked
(08:04):
her again for how she handled his termination, and then,
without warning, he declared his love for her. He wrote,
to put an end to my suffering. Can you be
direct with me and just tell me how you feel
towards me. Celeste was gracious, she always was. She responded, Hi, Louis,
(08:24):
those are really sweet words, and I appreciate you saying
all of this. I'm surprised to read this as it's
all new to me. As much as I appreciate it,
I only feel a professional way towards you, and I
wish you all the best towards your new job and journey.
But Louie didn't go away. The messages kept coming. At
first they were filled with admiration, odd in tone but
(08:47):
not yet overly threatening, but it was clear he wasn't
letting go. Celeste's comfort grew, and eventually she told him plainly,
I would really appreciate if you could stop contacting me,
as this is making me very uncomfortable. Seco replied with
something cold and cutting. My impression of you has changed.
(09:07):
You're no different to the majority of women. I will
remember you in this lesson for all my life and
devote every ounce of energy I have to climbing up
and proving to the world that I'm somebody. This is
my promise to you and final contact to you. But
it was in his final contact. The message has continued,
and when Celeste blocked him, another account popped up, then another,
(09:31):
and another and another. Over the span of roughly a year,
Saeco would send more than one hundred and forty messages
to Celeste across various fake profiles. Would have begun as
an awkward infactuation had spiraled into something far darker, a fixation,
an obsession, and Saeco knew it. In one message, he admitted,
(09:54):
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(11:29):
In another he wrote, I'm sorry, but I can't stop
thinking about you. I've never felt this way about anyone
in my life. I'm totally captivated by you. You're all
I think about. And then in December of twenty to nineteen,
the tone of the message is shifted. Leisieko started to
send sexually explicit, derogatory, and violent messages to Celeste. So
(11:53):
let's confided in those closest to her, her friends, her family,
even her colleagues, and when the anxiety became too much,
she went to the police. But what she was told
was chilling in its indifference. There was nothing they could do,
Seco hadn't made direct threats, no physical crime had been committed.
(12:15):
The advice she was given was to shut down her
social media, start afresh, delete and block her mother Agi
would later say the suggestion was to delete and block him,
or start a new account, or get off social media,
but Celeste resisted, Why should she be the one to disappear,
Why should she erase parts of her life because of him?
(12:38):
She left the police station shaken and still unprotected. The
messages just kept coming. One day, Celeste told Teko both
my family and police have been made aware of the situation,
but that didn't deter him. He responded, I feel a
little bit hurt that you would go to that extent, Celest.
(12:59):
I wouldn't hurt a soul, especially you. Why do you
see me as a threat? It's a genuine question that
I may learn from by getting your answer. He just
kept going, even when Aggie warned him to stop contacting
her daughter. She messaged him saying, we will be going
to the police again today. I've read very disgusting messages
(13:21):
you've sent my daughter out. Dare you Sego replied, I'm sorry.
I didn't know what I was doing was disgusting. But
I will stop contacting Celeste if that's all she wishes.
But he didn't stop. Celeste became hyper aware of her surroundings.
After every shift at Circle, her coworkers would walk her
(13:41):
to her car. They checked the parking lot, scanned the shadows.
She told her supervisor, he's really going to kill me.
Whenever celestrove home, she would always call her mother and
stay on the line. She had a plan. If she
ever thought that she was being followed, she'd drive straight
to the police station. Her mother later recollected Celeste was
(14:05):
always one hundred percent sure he didn't know where we lived,
but she checked her rare view mirrors constantly. Eventually Celeste
was able to apply for an intervention order. It was
granted an interim one, a piece of paper meant to
create distance, but Celeste didn't feel safe. She knew what
many victims of stalking knew all too well, that court
(14:28):
orders only mattered to those who choose to obey them.
After the intervention order was granted, a hush fell over
Celeste's inbox. For the first time in months. There was
no new messages, no disturbing DMS popping up under fake names,
no explicit rants, no threats, wrapped in declarations of obsession.
(14:49):
There was finally silence. Her mother, Aggie, recalled the change
in her daughter's mood. My daughter felt safer. I thought
hopefully it had scared him and maybe he REALI this
was serious and he needed to forget about Celeste. For
a moment, it felt like they could finally breathe again,
like the system had worked the way it was supposed to.
(15:11):
But the silence didn't last. Not long after, the messages
started again. This time the tone was pleading. Lay Seko
message Celeste to beg her to drop the intervention order.
He insisted he didn't understand that what he had done
was wrong. He said he was confused that he meant
no harm. I would never hurt a soul, he wrote.
(15:34):
He asked why she had treated him like a threat,
but Celeste saw through the performance. She didn't respond, She
didn't engage. She went straight to the police, and this
time Seko was arrested. When confronted with the reality of
what he had done, Seko broke down. He threatened to
take his own life. But it wasn't remorse, It was manipulation.
(15:57):
It was another tactic, another attempt to claw back control
over somebody who had made it clear she wanted nothing
to do with him. Sego was charged with breaching the
intervention order, but he was then released on summons. Celeste
tried not to let it rattle her. She had already
given too much of her energy, her sense of security,
(16:18):
and her peace of mind to this man. So she
carried all with life. It was November of twenty and twenty,
and Celeste was days away from celebrating her twenty fourth birthday.
It was something she had genuinely been looking forward to
her family, her friends, the coconut cake her mom promised
to be She was also looking forward to spending more
(16:39):
time with her baby niece, Daisy. Because of the COVID restrictions,
she hadn't gotten there much. But things were aasing. It
felt like the beginning of normalcy of life moving forward,
and Celeste was in love. Her boyfriend, Chris Resdale, had
brought a new light into her life. He was kind, thought, awful,
(17:00):
and safe. Celest had already told her friends and family
about him, but now she was ready to tell the world.
The weekend before her birthday, Celeste and Chris took a
photograph together. They were beaming, sitting side by side with
arms around one another in a local pub. Chris later
remembered we talked and joked about how this would be
(17:22):
the first picture of us together on her social media
and she was so excited to share it with everyone.
Celeste filled out her phone, opened Instagram and uploaded the photograph.
It was a simple act that many of us do
without thinking, but within ours, celest would be dead. It
(17:50):
was just after four a m. On the sixteenth of
November twenty and twenty, less than twenty four hours after
Celeste had shared that photograph with her boyfriend Chris. She
had gone to bed that night smiling, unaware that somewhere
across the city, a man she barely knew was staring
at that same image with something far more dangerous than heartbreak.
(18:13):
Lay Seco had seen the post. He had saved the
photograph to his phone. Then he'd searched for Chris's name
online on Google linked In, even tracing the location of
the pub where the photo had been taken. In the
early hours of that morning, under the cover of night,
Seco left his home in Roxburgh Park and began half
(18:35):
hour drive to Mirnda. The streets were still the world asleep,
but Sego wasn't aimless. He was on a mission. Once
he arrived at Celeste's quiet suburban street, he didn't park
straight away. He circled the block over and over again,
like a predator, waiting for the right moment. Then he
(18:57):
stopped the car. He got out. He ran to the
house and scaled the side fence like he had done
it before. Peering through her bedroom window, he could see
Celeste fast asleep, unaware that danger had already stepped inside
her world. Then, without hesitation, he smashed the window with
(19:18):
a hammer. Celeste was jolted awake by the sound of
shattering glass. She didn't even have time to scream. Within seconds,
Sega was inside her bedroom. He lunged at her, armed
with a kitchen knife, and began stabbing her with terrifying force.
Celeste fought back with everything she had. Her arms bore
(19:41):
defensive wounds, but she was ambush, trapped, and outmatched. Just
next door, her mother, Aggie, stirred from sleep. She thought
she'd heard something, footsteps, a thud. She sat up in bed,
unsure if it was real or just part of a dream,
But then she heard heard it gasping, she raced from
(20:03):
her bedroom into Celestes and then froze. Her daughter was
lying on the floor, surrounded by a pull of blood.
Her eyes were open but vacant. Her chest was rising
and falling with a fragile, strained rhythm. Each breath was
a struggle. Stab wounds covered her body and face. Aggie
(20:25):
dropped to the floor beside her, cradled her and called zero,
zero zero. She performed CPR and mouth to mouth, but
each breath became weaker, and then there was stillness. While
Aggie was desperately trying to see of her daughter, Secu
had already fled from the scene. He drove straight to
(20:45):
the mourned the police station. There, he approached an officer
calmly and just said two words, She's dead. He gave
them Celeste's a dress. Then he asked the officer to
shoot him. By the time paramedics arrived at the house,
celest Mano was already gone. She had been stabbed a
(21:05):
total of twenty three times, with a fatal wound through
her heart. The family home was enveloped in crime scene
tape as detectives and crimescene investigators descended on the scene,
police courtoned off the man of residents. Inside, investigators took
(21:29):
photographs of the bedroom, of the shattered window, the bloodstained sheets,
and they bagged the kitchen knife in the evidence. It
had been left behind by Seko as he made his getaway,
and slowly and carefully they carried Celeste's body out of
the home. Outside, her mother, Aggie, stood frozen, and then
(21:49):
she broke. She ran towards the tape, screaming, trying to
reach her daughter one last time. Detectives held their back,
their arms around her as she sobbed on the law
on how did I not protect her? She cried, There
are no words for that kind of guilt, no comfort
strong enough to reach your mother in that moment. Later,
(22:10):
Aggie would say, I couldn't believe what I walked into.
You were lifeless. I'm never going to forget that image
in my head, the look in your eyes, so distant,
so far away. I knew you were gone, but I
didn't want to believe what I was saying. The community
didn't need the full story to feel the weight of
what had happened. Blood was still visible on the side
(22:32):
gate from where Seko had fled. News crews gathered outside
and neighbors stared in disbelief and beneath the growing pile
of flowers and candles, a makeshift memorial was beginning to
take shape.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
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Speaker 1 (23:47):
As details emerged about Saiko's long campaign of stalking and harassment,
public horror turned to outrage. He had been reported he'd
been charged, he had an intervene in order against him,
and yet he was free. Celeste's father, Tony didn't hold
back as he said, it's got to be changed. It
won't bring her back, but it's got to be changed.
(24:10):
Too many scenarios have already happened. What's it going to
take for the government to listen. It's not right. It's
got to stop. Her brother Jaden, echoed that same heartbreak
as he said, we need the government to listen. Everyone
should have the right to live their lives, in their homes,
in their bedrooms, on the streets. No one should be scared.
(24:31):
In the days that followed, a petition was launched calling
for tougher laws to protect victims of stalking and violence.
It read, in part, although there are laws in place
and intervention orders can be granted, it's clear that this
is not sufficient and more needs to be done. Far
too many women have lost their lives at the hands
of perpetrators. More than eight thousand people signed their names.
(24:55):
The petition was tabled in state parliament, but for Celeste's
famil that was only the beginning. On the nineteenth of November,
just three days after the murderluais Seka was moved from
hospital to the police headquarters. He was charged with one
kind of murder, and while the legal process was moving
(25:15):
slowly forward, Celeste's loved ones had something for more devastating
to face saying goodbye. Towards the end of the month,
mourners gathered at the Whittlesey Funeral Home for Celeste's service.
It was a crisp day and crief clung in the air.
Her white casket was carried by her father, her brothers,
and her boyfriend Chris. Inside. Loved one stood up one
(25:39):
by one to speak about Celeste. Her mother, Aggie, delivered
a heartbreaking eulogy. I can't imagine the horror you must
have felt to have been awoken by some monster. I
didn't get there in time, and I'm so angry at myself.
I am so sorry. I am ashamed of myself because
you believed your mum would always protect. Aggie said that
(26:02):
despite everything Saco had done, Celess still had compassion for him,
She'd even felt sorry for him, but that compassion had
been met with violence, and Aggie's voice broke as she said,
you forgave everything, and everyone's sweety, but not me. I'm
not forgiving I want him to burn in hell. Her
(26:22):
younger brother, Alessandro, said he would never again play a
basketball game without imagining her cheering from the stands. He said,
you're my sister, my best friend, and most importantly, the
most amazing, beautiful person in my life. I can't believe
you're gone, and I can't hug and kiss you every
day after you come home from work. Jade and the
(26:45):
eldest said that the grief they carried was immeasurable. He said,
we're the luckiest people on earth to have had you
in our lives at all. You were your family's rock,
pillar of strength and protector. Tony her father, had his
words read aloud by someone else. He couldn't bring himself
to speak. Nothing in this earth will ever be able
(27:07):
to replace you, he said. In the months after Celeste's murder,
her family's grave transformed into a powerful force for change.
Agi became the face of the movement. She demanded for
better protection for women like Celeste, women who had done
(27:29):
everything right, who had reported their stalkers, who had followed
the rules. Aggie pushed for legislation that would ensure high
risk stalkers were no longer traded as low threat nuisances.
She called for violent perpetrators to be fitted with GPS
trackers and for breaches of intervention orders to carry immediate
jail time. Her voice shook as she stood before Victoria
(27:51):
Parliament and said, I visit my daughter's grave every day,
but I can't talk to her because I don't know
what to say. We felt safe. I thought we were safe.
There may be laws on legislations out there, but they
are not being addressed. In response, the Victorian government launched
an urgent review into intervention orders. At the same time,
(28:14):
Victoria Police announced in an internal investigation into how officers
had handled Celeste's case. Aggie was clear eyed about the failures.
I hold two very responsible for Celeste, first as Victoria Police,
because if they had done certain things differently, maybe Segu
could have been locked up before he did anything. Second
(28:35):
to Seku himself. But while Aggie was fighting for reform,
the man who murdered her daughter was locked in a
legal limbo. While on remand in a protective custody unit,
Luay Seko attempted to take his own life in the
exercise yard. He was rushed to hospital, then placed in
an observation cell. He was under twenty four hour monitoring
(28:57):
and remained isolated from the other prisoners. In September, Sagu
appeared via video link and formally pleaded not guilty to
the murder. His lawyer Sam Norton said that the play
was based on medical opinion and insanity defense was clearly
on the table, but by October that medical opinion was
deemed inconclusive. The defense requested a second evaluation, calling it
(29:21):
a very complex situation in regard to Seco's mental state.
Doctor Andrew Carroll later concluded that Sekah was unfit to
stand trial and that he would likely remain unfit for
at least the next twelve months. That ruling was devastating
because if a judge agreed, Seko wouldn't face a murder trial. Instead,
(29:42):
he would be moved to a secure psychiatric facility, and
under Australian law, if he were ever deemed well enough,
he could be quietly released back into the community, sometimes
within years. The Mano family feared what that could mean,
that Celeste killer might never be held accountable in court,
that her death would go untried and unpunished. As the
(30:06):
case stagnated, Victoria Police rolled out a new tool called
the Screening Assessment for stalking and harassment. It allowed officers
to better identify red flags like obsessive behaviors, past criminal charges,
and patterns of escalation. It was designed to stop stalkers
before they reached the point of violence. If someone was
(30:28):
assessed as high risk, they would now be subject to
more intensive police scrutiny. But for Celeste and her family
it had come too late. The review into her murder
revealed what many already suspected, that stalking allegations in Victoria
were often trivialized and victims like Celeste were left to
fend for themselves. Instead of police filing orders, the burden
(30:52):
was on victims to apply for them. Many never did,
many didn't know how to, and even when they did,
enforcement was inconsistent the best. The Victorian Law Reform Commission
issued forty six recommendations in total, including the police initiate
intervention orders on behalf of victims, that officers received better
(31:13):
training in recognizing and responding to stalking, that the overwhelmed
intervention order system be overhauled, and that the public be
better educated on what stalking actually entails. All of these steps,
it was hoped, would prevent another tragedy like Celestes, but
as the reforms moved forward, Seko's case remained in limbo.
(31:36):
In May, two expert psychiatrists gave conflicting assessments. One believed
Sego was fit to stand trial, the other disagreed. He
was still in isolation, still refusing to take his medication,
still claiming the prison staff were trying to kill him.
One psychiatrist warned that if Seko simply agreed to take
(31:58):
the medication he was rejecting, he would likely become competent
enough to face court, But for now he remained locked away,
and the decision on his fitness to stand trial rested
solely with the judge. If that judge ruled he was unfit,
Seco could be detained under the Mental Health Act, but
(32:19):
that detention wouldn't be permanent. He could be released in secret,
with no accountability and no justice, and that to Celeste's family,
was an unbearable prospect. In March of twenty and twenty three,
more than two years after Celeste was taken, Leay Seko
(32:41):
finally changed his play. He appeared in court and pleaded
guilty to the murder of Celeste Mannu, her mother Agi
Saj just feed away from the man who had taken
her daughter's life. She never looked away from him. Afterwards,
she said, I can't believe that this damon was actually
within reach. I just wanted him to feel that I
(33:02):
never took my eyes from him. Seko never once looked back.
The guilty plague came after a long and winding legal process.
The previously scheduled fitness hearing had been vacated after further
psychiatric evaluations determined that Seko was fit to stand trial.
During those evaluations, Sego had attempted to claim that a
(33:24):
hallucination named Esha had appeared in his car that night,
telling him he needed to act like a criminal and endeth.
He described Asha as a strange man with a big
nose and large ears who coaxed him into the attack.
But the psychiatrist unanimously concluded that Sega was faking. They
noted that he exaggerated his symptoms and made inconsistent statements.
(33:48):
In one disturbing comment, Seko remarked that Celeste appeared larger
than he remembered. He also claimed that when he saw
the photo of Celeste and Chris, he believed that Chris's
smile was laughing when niaclay at him. Despite the theatrics,
the professionals agreed Sego was not suffering from psychosis at
the time of the murder. His own defense attorney, Sam
(34:10):
Norton conceded that the mental impairment defense could no longer
be advanced, and faced with no other legal option, Seco
pleaded guilty, but just three months later he changed his
mind again. In a letter to the Supreme Court, he
asked to dump his lawyer and revoke his guilty play.
He wrote the last hearing where I pleaded guilty, that
(34:30):
decision was made on the day of the hearing. I
felt I was under pressure and still haven't had my
answers met to Celeste's family. It wasn't much of a surprise,
Aggie said, He's been playing the system for two and
a half years because of all the loopholes available to him.
Seko then retained a new defense attorney, Tim Marsh, who
(34:51):
requested yet another mental competency evaluation, But days later Marsh
informed the court that Sego no longer wished to revoke
his guilty play. The delays only continued in January twenty
twenty four, just as the case appeared ready to move forward,
Sego dumped his defense attorney again, this time declaring he
(35:11):
would represent himself at a pre sentencing hearing. He addressed
the court directly. He claimed that his former legal team
had undermined him and that he disputed the forensic evidence
regarding Celeste's injuries. In one of the most shocking moments
in court, Seko said, I know and believe I only
(35:31):
inflicted two wounds and that the twenty one other wounds
were a result of class inflicted injuries. It was a cruel,
delusional statement, and it devastated celeste family once again, forcing
them to listen as Seko tried to rewrite reality and
reduce the brutality of what he had done. The legal
(35:52):
delays had dragged on for years, but finally a sentencing
date was approaching, and for the Manu family, after years
of agony, justice was now within reach. The sentencing fates
finally went ahead on the twenty ninth of January. The
courtroom filled with celeste loved ones. The grief in the
room was palpable. The court then heard details of the
(36:15):
stalking campaign that escalated into murder, and once again the
Seco clung to his delusions. He maintained that he had
only stabbed Celeste twice, insisting that the remaining twenty one
stab wounds had been caused by broken glass when he
smashed through her bedroom window, But forensic pathologists doctor Paul
(36:36):
Bedford firmly dismissed that claim. He told the court that
no glass was found in Celeste's wounds and that each
of the twenty three injuries had clearly been inflicted with
a knife. When Seco began cross examining doctor Bedford, Celeste's
family walked out of the courtroom. Security footage was then presented.
(36:58):
It showed Seco running from his car to Celeste's front door,
knife in hand. He disputed that as well. I say
that I walked briskly, he told the court. Then came
the testimony of doctor Rajen Darjy, a forensic psychiatrist who
had assessed Seku. He testified that, in his opinion, Seco
(37:18):
had been driven by jealous rage after saying a photo
of Celeste with her new boyfriend, a photo that, in
his words, was the straw that broke the camel's back.
Doctor Dorgy diagnosed Sego with a severe personality disorder, depressive disorder,
and body dysmorphia. He added, I've never seen anyone with
such an extreme personality disorder who wasn't also psychopathic. He
(37:43):
said that during the murder, Sego was not only filled
with rage, but also wanted to erase the entire situation.
That's why he committed the murder, in my view, he said.
Doctor Georgie also testified that Sego posed a moderate to
high risk of stalking again, and if he did, there
was a high risk of serious violence. He said this
(38:04):
risk extended even to female prison staff if they showed
him kindness. He said, I'm not saying he will, but
if dynamics similar to those that led to the offending
happen in prison, you can see it happening. The court
also heard chilling evidence of premeditation. Months before the murderer,
Segu had purchased the knife, he had tracked down Celeste's home,
(38:26):
examining floor plans to determine her bedroom, and repeatedly drove
past the house to confirm her location. The prosecution argued
that this demonstrated clear and deliberate planning. Then came the
most emotional part of the hearing, the victim impact statements.
Celeste's father Tony spoke about the life he had lost.
(38:48):
The opportunity to walk her down the aisle and watch
her grow into a mother was taken from me. My
heart will be broken for the rest of my life.
Her mother, Aggie, addressed the court next. She said said
she didn't know him and she didn't want to know him.
He was a co worker to her, nothing more. He
wasn't a boy friend, an x or a friend. She
(39:08):
didn't provoke or insult him. She had no interest in him,
and he couldn't accept that. Aggie then turned to Sego directly.
He sat at the defense table with his head bowed.
She shouted at him to look at her, and then said,
look ahead, I'm here. You've got the scoutless wonder. I
hate you, and the only other person I hate more
(39:29):
than you is me. You extinguished one of the only
two reasons I lived for. She was everything to me,
nothing to you. My Swede felt safe with me. I
thought she was safe with me, but she wasn't. Was
she I couldn't protect her from you. We had no
idea You knew where we lived. The one place we
felt safe was home. Seko began to shake his head
(39:53):
and then in a disturbing scene, started violently hitting the
side of his head with his own hand. Aggie looked
directly at him and said, you're a bast You're an evil, repulsive,
demonic bast. She begged Justice Stixon to impose a life
sentence without parole. Justice Stixon then handed down her decision.
(40:15):
She said she had taken the victim impact statements seriously.
She acknowledged the immense pain that Siceco had caused. She
noted the guilty plea, but emphasized that the murder was planned, premeditated,
and carried out with chilling efficiency. She said, to Siko,
you made sure you had the advantage over her. She
acknowledged that he suffered from mental illness, including depression and
(40:38):
a personality disorder, but she said these didn't excuse or
philly explain what he had done to Celeste. Justice Dixon
described the murder as utterly cowardly, and then, in a
move that shocked many in the courtroom, she granted leniency.
She cited Sicco's mental illness's grounds to moderate his sentence.
(41:00):
Segu was then sentenced to thirty six years in prison
with a non parole period of thirty years. He could
have been sentenced to life without parole. The courtroom was stunned.
Outside court, Aggie held the speech she had prepared, expecting
a life sentence. She ripped it up instead. She said,
(41:22):
we were forced to trust the system that we lost
faith in three years ago. It failed Celess then, and
it failed her again. Now today's outcome proves just how
flawed the justice system is. Visibly distraught, she continued, protecting
the community from monsters like siegu was clearly not a
consideration of the court. It's outrageous, absolutely unbelievable that the
(41:46):
court decided to grant him mercy, even though he showed
Celeste nun quite clearly his right to mercy was more
important than her right to life. Well, that is it
(42:21):
for this episode of Morbidology. As always, thank you so
much for listening, and i'd like to say a massive
thank you to my new supporters up on Patreon, Linnea Whitney,
Sarah Brittany, Tanika Barrett, and Juny. The link to Patreon
is in the show notes. If you'd like to join,
I upload Adfrey and early release episodes, behind the scenes
bonus episodes of Morbidology plus, and I also send out
(42:42):
merch along with a thank you card. Morbidology Plus is
also available through Apple Subscriptions, where you get Adfrey, early
release and bonus episodes. Remember to check us out at
morbidology dot com for more information about this episode and
to rate some true crime art. Until next time, take
care of yourselves, stay safe, and have an amazing week
Melbourne is located in the southeastern corner of Australia. It's
a big city, humming with activity at all ours in
the day and night. On the outer fringe of Melbourne's
northern suburbs lies Murnda. It's a quiet, modern neighborhood that's
still holds the imprint of its rural past. It started
out as farmland, known in the eighteen hundreds as Merangue South.
(01:07):
It was the land of orchards and sheep stations before
it took the name Mirnda in nineteen thirteen. By the
two thousands, Murnda had transformed. It was now one of
the faster growing areas in Victoria. Farm blocks gave way
to neat rows of family homes, school supermarkets, and a
shiny new train line followed, connecting the community to the
(01:29):
wider city. One night in November of twenty and twenty,
Aggimano was asleep in her bed in a tidy house
nestled in one of the new estates of Mirnda. The
home was still in dark until a noise shoulted her awake.
She blinked, unsure if it had come from the world
outside or from inside her dreams, but then she heard
(01:51):
something else. It sounded like somebody gasping for breath. This
wasn't a bad dream, It was real. But the nightmare
had only just begun. It was in the suburb of
(02:17):
Mirnda that Celeste Mano had built a life. She was
born on the twenty second of November nineteen ninety six,
the only daughter of Aggie Tomorrow and Tony Mano. From
the very beginning, she was there light. The name Celeste
had been chosen deliberately lovingly for its celestial meaning. Though
her parents would eventually separate, their bond with Celeste remained unwavering.
(02:42):
She grew up surrounded by love from her parents and
her two brothers, Alessandro and Jaden, the man who household
life was one of tradition. Evenings often meant floor or
dusted aprons and the scent of homemade pizza wafting from
the kitchen. The easy Sunday afternoons were spent lounging by
the swimming pool. To Jade and her older brother, Celeste
(03:04):
was more than a sister. She was a guiding force.
He later recollected. She was the most intelligent one of
all of us, the best of all of us. There
isn't a soul on this earth, who could ever say
a bad thing? When Jane became a father, Celeste embraced
the role of ante with joy. Only wasn't just important
(03:24):
to her, it was everything. She radiated a kind of
grace that felt rare in her generation. Those who loved
her said that she was elegant, thoughtful, even a little
old fashioned in a world that often rushes past tenderness.
Her friend and colleague, Bertine Rash, who remembered her as
a kind, loving, great friend to many. Celeste's bedroom wall
(03:46):
bore a whiteboard filled with motivational quotes and gentle reminders.
Each morning, before anything else, she would pause to read them.
At the very top was a single word, smile, and
she meant it. To Celeste, a smile wasn't just an expression,
It was a way to writeen up somebody else's day.
Her godmother, Pinya, described her as the sweetest, kindest person
(04:10):
you could ever meet, and that kindness wasn't surface level,
it was deeply ingrained in the way that she moved
through the world. For five years, Celeste had volunteered with
Seven Cups of Tea, an online platform that provides emotional
support to people experiencing mental health challenges. The work was
hard and it was unpaid, but Celeste never treated it
(04:31):
like a burden. She carried that same empathy into her
professional life. After completing a criminology and psychology degree at
r MIT University, she accepted a job at a call
center in mill Park operated by Circo Asia Pacific. For many,
the call center was just a job, a stepping stone,
(04:53):
a paycheck. But Celeste was different. She brought a quiet
brilliance to the workplace. Her college said that she had
a positive energy. She was wise beyond her years, so
much so that she was quickly promoted to team leader.
But in that same workplace, Celeste had also caught the
attention of someone else, someone who was watching. Among the
(05:28):
team members who briefly worked under Celeste's supervision at Circo
was a man named Louis Seco. He was thirty five
years old, more than a decade older than Celeste, and
in many ways his story was won shaped by displacement
and disappointment. Seco had been born in Iraq. During the
oppressive reign of Saddam Hussein. In nineteen ninety two, he
(05:49):
and his family fled to Australia in search of something better.
He was the eldest of five children, and with that
came pressure, some spoken, some not. His younger brother Lauren,
would later make headlines after being sentenced to six years
in a youth justice center for the manslaughter of twenty
two year old Matthew macavoy. Leais on the surface had
(06:13):
always appeared to be the opposite. He was studious and quiet.
He excelled in maths and earned his way into university.
But somewhere along that path something began to fracture. His
own family would later describe him as a loner and
an introvert. Social cues escaped him, human connection seemed to
(06:34):
slip through his fingers. A university, he struggled. He felt
invisible and rejected, and that sense of isolation seemed to
harden something inside of him. Work didn't provide the redemption
he may have hoped for. He drifted in and out
of retailed jobs, often unemployed, living on the fringe of
professional life until April of two thousand and nineteen, when
(06:59):
he joined SO and was assigned to the team led
by Celeste Mano. She treated him just like she treated
everybody else, with respect, with professionalism with the kind of
quiet empathy that came so naturally to her. But Luis
Siecho saw something else in her, something that was never there.
(07:20):
Just two months into the job, Seko was fired for
ongoing performance issues. On his last day, Celeste walked him
to the door, shook his hand, and wished him well.
It was a simple, courteous goodbye, the kind of moment
that might be forgotten by most, but for Seku it
became something else entirely. He thanked her for her kindness,
(07:41):
and then, without warning, he leaned in and kissed her
on the cheek. Celeste was startled. The gesture had crossed
a line. It made her deeply uncomfortable, but she didn't
dwell on it. She moved on, or at least she
tried to. A week later, a message arrived in her Instagram.
I'm in box. It was from Louis Seko. He thanked
(08:04):
her again for how she handled his termination, and then,
without warning, he declared his love for her. He wrote,
to put an end to my suffering. Can you be
direct with me and just tell me how you feel
towards me. Celeste was gracious, she always was. She responded, Hi, Louis,
(08:24):
those are really sweet words, and I appreciate you saying
all of this. I'm surprised to read this as it's
all new to me. As much as I appreciate it,
I only feel a professional way towards you, and I
wish you all the best towards your new job and journey.
But Louie didn't go away. The messages kept coming. At
first they were filled with admiration, odd in tone but
(08:47):
not yet overly threatening, but it was clear he wasn't
letting go. Celeste's comfort grew, and eventually she told him plainly,
I would really appreciate if you could stop contacting me,
as this is making me very uncomfortable. Seco replied with
something cold and cutting. My impression of you has changed.
(09:07):
You're no different to the majority of women. I will
remember you in this lesson for all my life and
devote every ounce of energy I have to climbing up
and proving to the world that I'm somebody. This is
my promise to you and final contact to you. But
it was in his final contact. The message has continued,
and when Celeste blocked him, another account popped up, then another,
(09:31):
and another and another. Over the span of roughly a year,
Saeco would send more than one hundred and forty messages
to Celeste across various fake profiles. Would have begun as
an awkward infactuation had spiraled into something far darker, a fixation,
an obsession, and Saeco knew it. In one message, he admitted,
(09:54):
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(11:29):
In another he wrote, I'm sorry, but I can't stop
thinking about you. I've never felt this way about anyone
in my life. I'm totally captivated by you. You're all
I think about. And then in December of twenty to nineteen,
the tone of the message is shifted. Leisieko started to
send sexually explicit, derogatory, and violent messages to Celeste. So
(11:53):
let's confided in those closest to her, her friends, her family,
even her colleagues, and when the anxiety became too much,
she went to the police. But what she was told
was chilling in its indifference. There was nothing they could do,
Seco hadn't made direct threats, no physical crime had been committed.
(12:15):
The advice she was given was to shut down her
social media, start afresh, delete and block her mother Agi
would later say the suggestion was to delete and block him,
or start a new account, or get off social media,
but Celeste resisted, Why should she be the one to disappear,
Why should she erase parts of her life because of him?
(12:38):
She left the police station shaken and still unprotected. The
messages just kept coming. One day, Celeste told Teko both
my family and police have been made aware of the situation,
but that didn't deter him. He responded, I feel a
little bit hurt that you would go to that extent, Celest.
(12:59):
I wouldn't hurt a soul, especially you. Why do you
see me as a threat? It's a genuine question that
I may learn from by getting your answer. He just
kept going, even when Aggie warned him to stop contacting
her daughter. She messaged him saying, we will be going
to the police again today. I've read very disgusting messages
(13:21):
you've sent my daughter out. Dare you Sego replied, I'm sorry.
I didn't know what I was doing was disgusting. But
I will stop contacting Celeste if that's all she wishes.
But he didn't stop. Celeste became hyper aware of her surroundings.
After every shift at Circle, her coworkers would walk her
(13:41):
to her car. They checked the parking lot, scanned the shadows.
She told her supervisor, he's really going to kill me.
Whenever celestrove home, she would always call her mother and
stay on the line. She had a plan. If she
ever thought that she was being followed, she'd drive straight
to the police station. Her mother later recollected Celeste was
(14:05):
always one hundred percent sure he didn't know where we lived,
but she checked her rare view mirrors constantly. Eventually Celeste
was able to apply for an intervention order. It was
granted an interim one, a piece of paper meant to
create distance, but Celeste didn't feel safe. She knew what
many victims of stalking knew all too well, that court
(14:28):
orders only mattered to those who choose to obey them.
After the intervention order was granted, a hush fell over
Celeste's inbox. For the first time in months. There was
no new messages, no disturbing DMS popping up under fake names,
no explicit rants, no threats, wrapped in declarations of obsession.
(14:49):
There was finally silence. Her mother, Aggie, recalled the change
in her daughter's mood. My daughter felt safer. I thought
hopefully it had scared him and maybe he REALI this
was serious and he needed to forget about Celeste. For
a moment, it felt like they could finally breathe again,
like the system had worked the way it was supposed to.
(15:11):
But the silence didn't last. Not long after, the messages
started again. This time the tone was pleading. Lay Seko
message Celeste to beg her to drop the intervention order.
He insisted he didn't understand that what he had done
was wrong. He said he was confused that he meant
no harm. I would never hurt a soul, he wrote.
(15:34):
He asked why she had treated him like a threat,
but Celeste saw through the performance. She didn't respond, She
didn't engage. She went straight to the police, and this
time Seko was arrested. When confronted with the reality of
what he had done, Seko broke down. He threatened to
take his own life. But it wasn't remorse, It was manipulation.
(15:57):
It was another tactic, another attempt to claw back control
over somebody who had made it clear she wanted nothing
to do with him. Sego was charged with breaching the
intervention order, but he was then released on summons. Celeste
tried not to let it rattle her. She had already
given too much of her energy, her sense of security,
(16:18):
and her peace of mind to this man. So she
carried all with life. It was November of twenty and twenty,
and Celeste was days away from celebrating her twenty fourth birthday.
It was something she had genuinely been looking forward to
her family, her friends, the coconut cake her mom promised
to be She was also looking forward to spending more
(16:39):
time with her baby niece, Daisy. Because of the COVID restrictions,
she hadn't gotten there much. But things were aasing. It
felt like the beginning of normalcy of life moving forward,
and Celeste was in love. Her boyfriend, Chris Resdale, had
brought a new light into her life. He was kind, thought, awful,
(17:00):
and safe. Celest had already told her friends and family
about him, but now she was ready to tell the world.
The weekend before her birthday, Celeste and Chris took a
photograph together. They were beaming, sitting side by side with
arms around one another in a local pub. Chris later
remembered we talked and joked about how this would be
(17:22):
the first picture of us together on her social media
and she was so excited to share it with everyone.
Celeste filled out her phone, opened Instagram and uploaded the photograph.
It was a simple act that many of us do
without thinking, but within ours, celest would be dead. It
(17:50):
was just after four a m. On the sixteenth of
November twenty and twenty, less than twenty four hours after
Celeste had shared that photograph with her boyfriend Chris. She
had gone to bed that night smiling, unaware that somewhere
across the city, a man she barely knew was staring
at that same image with something far more dangerous than heartbreak.
(18:13):
Lay Seco had seen the post. He had saved the
photograph to his phone. Then he'd searched for Chris's name
online on Google linked In, even tracing the location of
the pub where the photo had been taken. In the
early hours of that morning, under the cover of night,
Seco left his home in Roxburgh Park and began half
(18:35):
hour drive to Mirnda. The streets were still the world asleep,
but Sego wasn't aimless. He was on a mission. Once
he arrived at Celeste's quiet suburban street, he didn't park
straight away. He circled the block over and over again,
like a predator, waiting for the right moment. Then he
(18:57):
stopped the car. He got out. He ran to the
house and scaled the side fence like he had done
it before. Peering through her bedroom window, he could see
Celeste fast asleep, unaware that danger had already stepped inside
her world. Then, without hesitation, he smashed the window with
(19:18):
a hammer. Celeste was jolted awake by the sound of
shattering glass. She didn't even have time to scream. Within seconds,
Sega was inside her bedroom. He lunged at her, armed
with a kitchen knife, and began stabbing her with terrifying force.
Celeste fought back with everything she had. Her arms bore
(19:41):
defensive wounds, but she was ambush, trapped, and outmatched. Just
next door, her mother, Aggie, stirred from sleep. She thought
she'd heard something, footsteps, a thud. She sat up in bed,
unsure if it was real or just part of a dream,
But then she heard heard it gasping, she raced from
(20:03):
her bedroom into Celestes and then froze. Her daughter was
lying on the floor, surrounded by a pull of blood.
Her eyes were open but vacant. Her chest was rising
and falling with a fragile, strained rhythm. Each breath was
a struggle. Stab wounds covered her body and face. Aggie
(20:25):
dropped to the floor beside her, cradled her and called zero,
zero zero. She performed CPR and mouth to mouth, but
each breath became weaker, and then there was stillness. While
Aggie was desperately trying to see of her daughter, Secu
had already fled from the scene. He drove straight to
(20:45):
the mourned the police station. There, he approached an officer
calmly and just said two words, She's dead. He gave
them Celeste's a dress. Then he asked the officer to
shoot him. By the time paramedics arrived at the house,
celest Mano was already gone. She had been stabbed a
(21:05):
total of twenty three times, with a fatal wound through
her heart. The family home was enveloped in crime scene
tape as detectives and crimescene investigators descended on the scene,
police courtoned off the man of residents. Inside, investigators took
(21:29):
photographs of the bedroom, of the shattered window, the bloodstained sheets,
and they bagged the kitchen knife in the evidence. It
had been left behind by Seko as he made his getaway,
and slowly and carefully they carried Celeste's body out of
the home. Outside, her mother, Aggie, stood frozen, and then
(21:49):
she broke. She ran towards the tape, screaming, trying to
reach her daughter one last time. Detectives held their back,
their arms around her as she sobbed on the law
on how did I not protect her? She cried, There
are no words for that kind of guilt, no comfort
strong enough to reach your mother in that moment. Later,
(22:10):
Aggie would say, I couldn't believe what I walked into.
You were lifeless. I'm never going to forget that image
in my head, the look in your eyes, so distant,
so far away. I knew you were gone, but I
didn't want to believe what I was saying. The community
didn't need the full story to feel the weight of
what had happened. Blood was still visible on the side
(22:32):
gate from where Seko had fled. News crews gathered outside
and neighbors stared in disbelief and beneath the growing pile
of flowers and candles, a makeshift memorial was beginning to
take shape.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Morbidology listeners, if you're ready for even more evidence driven
content with razor sharp storytelling, we'd love to introduce you
to Kill Her Heart to Hearts, a narrative true crime podcast.
Asked we center victims and families, build timelines from reputable
primary sources, and keep a steady documentary tone with just
(23:09):
enough dark edged humor that never cheapens the story. We
explore how the evidence fits and how it doesn't, where
the leads went and where it all fell into place,
and what that all meant for the people involved and
the communities left behind. Good introductory episodes to start with
include in Cell, In Ditches or The Acid King, three
(23:32):
episodes our audience points to as the best entry ramps
to our dark little corner of true crime. New episodes
are released every Monday, so search Kill Her Heart to
Hearts and follow Today wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
As details emerged about Saiko's long campaign of stalking and harassment,
public horror turned to outrage. He had been reported he'd
been charged, he had an intervene in order against him,
and yet he was free. Celeste's father, Tony didn't hold
back as he said, it's got to be changed. It
won't bring her back, but it's got to be changed.
(24:10):
Too many scenarios have already happened. What's it going to
take for the government to listen. It's not right. It's
got to stop. Her brother Jaden, echoed that same heartbreak
as he said, we need the government to listen. Everyone
should have the right to live their lives, in their homes,
in their bedrooms, on the streets. No one should be scared.
(24:31):
In the days that followed, a petition was launched calling
for tougher laws to protect victims of stalking and violence.
It read, in part, although there are laws in place
and intervention orders can be granted, it's clear that this
is not sufficient and more needs to be done. Far
too many women have lost their lives at the hands
of perpetrators. More than eight thousand people signed their names.
(24:55):
The petition was tabled in state parliament, but for Celeste's
famil that was only the beginning. On the nineteenth of November,
just three days after the murderluais Seka was moved from
hospital to the police headquarters. He was charged with one
kind of murder, and while the legal process was moving
(25:15):
slowly forward, Celeste's loved ones had something for more devastating
to face saying goodbye. Towards the end of the month,
mourners gathered at the Whittlesey Funeral Home for Celeste's service.
It was a crisp day and crief clung in the air.
Her white casket was carried by her father, her brothers,
and her boyfriend Chris. Inside. Loved one stood up one
(25:39):
by one to speak about Celeste. Her mother, Aggie, delivered
a heartbreaking eulogy. I can't imagine the horror you must
have felt to have been awoken by some monster. I
didn't get there in time, and I'm so angry at myself.
I am so sorry. I am ashamed of myself because
you believed your mum would always protect. Aggie said that
(26:02):
despite everything Saco had done, Celess still had compassion for him,
She'd even felt sorry for him, but that compassion had
been met with violence, and Aggie's voice broke as she said,
you forgave everything, and everyone's sweety, but not me. I'm
not forgiving I want him to burn in hell. Her
(26:22):
younger brother, Alessandro, said he would never again play a
basketball game without imagining her cheering from the stands. He said,
you're my sister, my best friend, and most importantly, the
most amazing, beautiful person in my life. I can't believe
you're gone, and I can't hug and kiss you every
day after you come home from work. Jade and the
(26:45):
eldest said that the grief they carried was immeasurable. He said,
we're the luckiest people on earth to have had you
in our lives at all. You were your family's rock,
pillar of strength and protector. Tony her father, had his
words read aloud by someone else. He couldn't bring himself
to speak. Nothing in this earth will ever be able
(27:07):
to replace you, he said. In the months after Celeste's murder,
her family's grave transformed into a powerful force for change.
Agi became the face of the movement. She demanded for
better protection for women like Celeste, women who had done
(27:29):
everything right, who had reported their stalkers, who had followed
the rules. Aggie pushed for legislation that would ensure high
risk stalkers were no longer traded as low threat nuisances.
She called for violent perpetrators to be fitted with GPS
trackers and for breaches of intervention orders to carry immediate
jail time. Her voice shook as she stood before Victoria
(27:51):
Parliament and said, I visit my daughter's grave every day,
but I can't talk to her because I don't know
what to say. We felt safe. I thought we were safe.
There may be laws on legislations out there, but they
are not being addressed. In response, the Victorian government launched
an urgent review into intervention orders. At the same time,
(28:14):
Victoria Police announced in an internal investigation into how officers
had handled Celeste's case. Aggie was clear eyed about the failures.
I hold two very responsible for Celeste, first as Victoria Police,
because if they had done certain things differently, maybe Segu
could have been locked up before he did anything. Second
(28:35):
to Seku himself. But while Aggie was fighting for reform,
the man who murdered her daughter was locked in a
legal limbo. While on remand in a protective custody unit,
Luay Seko attempted to take his own life in the
exercise yard. He was rushed to hospital, then placed in
an observation cell. He was under twenty four hour monitoring
(28:57):
and remained isolated from the other prisoners. In September, Sagu
appeared via video link and formally pleaded not guilty to
the murder. His lawyer Sam Norton said that the play
was based on medical opinion and insanity defense was clearly
on the table, but by October that medical opinion was
deemed inconclusive. The defense requested a second evaluation, calling it
(29:21):
a very complex situation in regard to Seco's mental state.
Doctor Andrew Carroll later concluded that Sekah was unfit to
stand trial and that he would likely remain unfit for
at least the next twelve months. That ruling was devastating
because if a judge agreed, Seko wouldn't face a murder trial. Instead,
(29:42):
he would be moved to a secure psychiatric facility, and
under Australian law, if he were ever deemed well enough,
he could be quietly released back into the community, sometimes
within years. The Mano family feared what that could mean,
that Celeste killer might never be held accountable in court,
that her death would go untried and unpunished. As the
(30:06):
case stagnated, Victoria Police rolled out a new tool called
the Screening Assessment for stalking and harassment. It allowed officers
to better identify red flags like obsessive behaviors, past criminal charges,
and patterns of escalation. It was designed to stop stalkers
before they reached the point of violence. If someone was
(30:28):
assessed as high risk, they would now be subject to
more intensive police scrutiny. But for Celeste and her family
it had come too late. The review into her murder
revealed what many already suspected, that stalking allegations in Victoria
were often trivialized and victims like Celeste were left to
fend for themselves. Instead of police filing orders, the burden
(30:52):
was on victims to apply for them. Many never did,
many didn't know how to, and even when they did,
enforcement was inconsistent the best. The Victorian Law Reform Commission
issued forty six recommendations in total, including the police initiate
intervention orders on behalf of victims, that officers received better
(31:13):
training in recognizing and responding to stalking, that the overwhelmed
intervention order system be overhauled, and that the public be
better educated on what stalking actually entails. All of these steps,
it was hoped, would prevent another tragedy like Celestes, but
as the reforms moved forward, Seko's case remained in limbo.
(31:36):
In May, two expert psychiatrists gave conflicting assessments. One believed
Sego was fit to stand trial, the other disagreed. He
was still in isolation, still refusing to take his medication,
still claiming the prison staff were trying to kill him.
One psychiatrist warned that if Seko simply agreed to take
(31:58):
the medication he was rejecting, he would likely become competent
enough to face court, But for now he remained locked away,
and the decision on his fitness to stand trial rested
solely with the judge. If that judge ruled he was unfit,
Seco could be detained under the Mental Health Act, but
(32:19):
that detention wouldn't be permanent. He could be released in secret,
with no accountability and no justice, and that to Celeste's family,
was an unbearable prospect. In March of twenty and twenty three,
more than two years after Celeste was taken, Leay Seko
(32:41):
finally changed his play. He appeared in court and pleaded
guilty to the murder of Celeste Mannu, her mother Agi
Saj just feed away from the man who had taken
her daughter's life. She never looked away from him. Afterwards,
she said, I can't believe that this damon was actually
within reach. I just wanted him to feel that I
(33:02):
never took my eyes from him. Seko never once looked back.
The guilty plague came after a long and winding legal process.
The previously scheduled fitness hearing had been vacated after further
psychiatric evaluations determined that Seko was fit to stand trial.
During those evaluations, Sego had attempted to claim that a
(33:24):
hallucination named Esha had appeared in his car that night,
telling him he needed to act like a criminal and endeth.
He described Asha as a strange man with a big
nose and large ears who coaxed him into the attack.
But the psychiatrist unanimously concluded that Sega was faking. They
noted that he exaggerated his symptoms and made inconsistent statements.
(33:48):
In one disturbing comment, Seko remarked that Celeste appeared larger
than he remembered. He also claimed that when he saw
the photo of Celeste and Chris, he believed that Chris's
smile was laughing when niaclay at him. Despite the theatrics,
the professionals agreed Sego was not suffering from psychosis at
the time of the murder. His own defense attorney, Sam
(34:10):
Norton conceded that the mental impairment defense could no longer
be advanced, and faced with no other legal option, Seco
pleaded guilty, but just three months later he changed his
mind again. In a letter to the Supreme Court, he
asked to dump his lawyer and revoke his guilty play.
He wrote the last hearing where I pleaded guilty, that
(34:30):
decision was made on the day of the hearing. I
felt I was under pressure and still haven't had my
answers met to Celeste's family. It wasn't much of a surprise,
Aggie said, He's been playing the system for two and
a half years because of all the loopholes available to him.
Seko then retained a new defense attorney, Tim Marsh, who
(34:51):
requested yet another mental competency evaluation, But days later Marsh
informed the court that Sego no longer wished to revoke
his guilty play. The delays only continued in January twenty
twenty four, just as the case appeared ready to move forward,
Sego dumped his defense attorney again, this time declaring he
(35:11):
would represent himself at a pre sentencing hearing. He addressed
the court directly. He claimed that his former legal team
had undermined him and that he disputed the forensic evidence
regarding Celeste's injuries. In one of the most shocking moments
in court, Seko said, I know and believe I only
(35:31):
inflicted two wounds and that the twenty one other wounds
were a result of class inflicted injuries. It was a cruel,
delusional statement, and it devastated celeste family once again, forcing
them to listen as Seko tried to rewrite reality and
reduce the brutality of what he had done. The legal
(35:52):
delays had dragged on for years, but finally a sentencing
date was approaching, and for the Manu family, after years
of agony, justice was now within reach. The sentencing fates
finally went ahead on the twenty ninth of January. The
courtroom filled with celeste loved ones. The grief in the
room was palpable. The court then heard details of the
(36:15):
stalking campaign that escalated into murder, and once again the
Seco clung to his delusions. He maintained that he had
only stabbed Celeste twice, insisting that the remaining twenty one
stab wounds had been caused by broken glass when he
smashed through her bedroom window, But forensic pathologists doctor Paul
(36:36):
Bedford firmly dismissed that claim. He told the court that
no glass was found in Celeste's wounds and that each
of the twenty three injuries had clearly been inflicted with
a knife. When Seco began cross examining doctor Bedford, Celeste's
family walked out of the courtroom. Security footage was then presented.
(36:58):
It showed Seco running from his car to Celeste's front door,
knife in hand. He disputed that as well. I say
that I walked briskly, he told the court. Then came
the testimony of doctor Rajen Darjy, a forensic psychiatrist who
had assessed Seku. He testified that, in his opinion, Seco
(37:18):
had been driven by jealous rage after saying a photo
of Celeste with her new boyfriend, a photo that, in
his words, was the straw that broke the camel's back.
Doctor Dorgy diagnosed Sego with a severe personality disorder, depressive disorder,
and body dysmorphia. He added, I've never seen anyone with
such an extreme personality disorder who wasn't also psychopathic. He
(37:43):
said that during the murder, Sego was not only filled
with rage, but also wanted to erase the entire situation.
That's why he committed the murder, in my view, he said.
Doctor Georgie also testified that Sego posed a moderate to
high risk of stalking again, and if he did, there
was a high risk of serious violence. He said this
(38:04):
risk extended even to female prison staff if they showed
him kindness. He said, I'm not saying he will, but
if dynamics similar to those that led to the offending
happen in prison, you can see it happening. The court
also heard chilling evidence of premeditation. Months before the murderer,
Segu had purchased the knife, he had tracked down Celeste's home,
(38:26):
examining floor plans to determine her bedroom, and repeatedly drove
past the house to confirm her location. The prosecution argued
that this demonstrated clear and deliberate planning. Then came the
most emotional part of the hearing, the victim impact statements.
Celeste's father Tony spoke about the life he had lost.
(38:48):
The opportunity to walk her down the aisle and watch
her grow into a mother was taken from me. My
heart will be broken for the rest of my life.
Her mother, Aggie, addressed the court next. She said said
she didn't know him and she didn't want to know him.
He was a co worker to her, nothing more. He
wasn't a boy friend, an x or a friend. She
(39:08):
didn't provoke or insult him. She had no interest in him,
and he couldn't accept that. Aggie then turned to Sego directly.
He sat at the defense table with his head bowed.
She shouted at him to look at her, and then said,
look ahead, I'm here. You've got the scoutless wonder. I
hate you, and the only other person I hate more
(39:29):
than you is me. You extinguished one of the only
two reasons I lived for. She was everything to me,
nothing to you. My Swede felt safe with me. I
thought she was safe with me, but she wasn't. Was
she I couldn't protect her from you. We had no
idea You knew where we lived. The one place we
felt safe was home. Seko began to shake his head
(39:53):
and then in a disturbing scene, started violently hitting the
side of his head with his own hand. Aggie looked
directly at him and said, you're a bast You're an evil, repulsive,
demonic bast. She begged Justice Stixon to impose a life
sentence without parole. Justice Stixon then handed down her decision.
(40:15):
She said she had taken the victim impact statements seriously.
She acknowledged the immense pain that Siceco had caused. She
noted the guilty plea, but emphasized that the murder was planned, premeditated,
and carried out with chilling efficiency. She said, to Siko,
you made sure you had the advantage over her. She
acknowledged that he suffered from mental illness, including depression and
(40:38):
a personality disorder, but she said these didn't excuse or
philly explain what he had done to Celeste. Justice Dixon
described the murder as utterly cowardly, and then, in a
move that shocked many in the courtroom, she granted leniency.
She cited Sicco's mental illness's grounds to moderate his sentence.
(41:00):
Segu was then sentenced to thirty six years in prison
with a non parole period of thirty years. He could
have been sentenced to life without parole. The courtroom was stunned.
Outside court, Aggie held the speech she had prepared, expecting
a life sentence. She ripped it up instead. She said,
(41:22):
we were forced to trust the system that we lost
faith in three years ago. It failed Celess then, and
it failed her again. Now today's outcome proves just how
flawed the justice system is. Visibly distraught, she continued, protecting
the community from monsters like siegu was clearly not a
consideration of the court. It's outrageous, absolutely unbelievable that the
(41:46):
court decided to grant him mercy, even though he showed
Celeste nun quite clearly his right to mercy was more
important than her right to life. Well, that is it
(42:21):
for this episode of Morbidology. As always, thank you so
much for listening, and i'd like to say a massive
thank you to my new supporters up on Patreon, Linnea Whitney,
Sarah Brittany, Tanika Barrett, and Juny. The link to Patreon
is in the show notes. If you'd like to join,
I upload Adfrey and early release episodes, behind the scenes
bonus episodes of Morbidology plus, and I also send out
(42:42):
merch along with a thank you card. Morbidology Plus is
also available through Apple Subscriptions, where you get Adfrey, early
release and bonus episodes. Remember to check us out at
morbidology dot com for more information about this episode and
to rate some true crime art. Until next time, take
care of yourselves, stay safe, and have an amazing week
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