Stalker who came in through the skylight gets 18 years

An ‘infatuated’ stalker who abseiled through a skylight into a woman’s bathroom and lay in wait for her was jailed for 18 years for trying to beat her to death.

Fatmir Stafasani, 49, warned his victim ‘this is your last day’ before repeatedly smashing her over the head with a crowbar in her own top-floor apartment in Fulham, southwest London.

The woman, in her 40s, identified Stafasani as her attacker and said she had known him for a number of years from their native country of Albania.

‘She said that she believed he was obsessed with her, infatuated, and that he had threatened her previously that if she would not become his wife he would degrade her and claim, in fact, that they were married,’ said prosecutor Michelle Fawcett.

‘He was that infatuated with her.’

The woman later picked out Stafasani at an identity parade and screamed ‘monster’ at the screen as she covered her eyes with her hands.

Detectives investigating the crime scene had uncovered black webbing straps, typically used by climbers, secured by a metal loop and spring-loaded gate closure to pipework on the roof.

The webbing, which bore Stafasani’s DNA along with a discarded orange juice bottle nearby, hung down towards the bathroom floor, Southwark Crown Court heard.

Stafasani denied attempted murder and aggravated burglary but was convicted by a jury in less than two hours.

The stalker sat slumped in a wheelchair shaking during the trial and refused to utter a word in court.

Following the verdicts, Ms Fawcett said ‘the defendant is effectively putting on the symptoms’ and that two doctors had agreed ‘there is no psychological or medical or physical reason for his mutism’.

Judge Jeffrey Pegden QC told Stafasani: ‘You have deliberately chosen not to engage in these proceedings and have remained intentionally silent, choosing not to speak and not to answer to the charges.

‘You were active and agile when you were arrested on 11 May this year, but since your remand into custody to Wandsworth Prison you have masqueraded as someone confined to a wheelchair and someone who cannot speak and had tremors.’

He added: ‘As I say, on 20 March 2017, you were an active and agile man, as can be seen from the CCTV relating to these offences.

‘Indeed, on that day you abseiled through a roof skylight using some climbing equipment in order to enter the flat in Fulham, to wait for her in order to carry out an extremely violent attack on her when she arrived home that afternoon.

‘You beat her about the head and body using a crowbar you had taken with you.

‘The attack was a sustained attack when she was alone in her own home.

‘Your attack left her with the gravest possible injuries from which I am satisfied that she still suffers physically and psychologically today.

‘She pleaded with you for her life, but you said it was ‘The last day of her life’.

‘Two days before that, when you phoned her, you said then you would kill her.

‘All of this, in my judgement, because you were obsessed and infatuated with her and she had rebuffed your persistent advances over a period of years.

‘Quite plainly, you intended to kill her on that day as the jury found unanimously.’

The victim had arrived home from shopping and let herself into the locked flat with a key shortly after lunchtime on March 20 this year.

She then made her way to the bedroom to remove her shoes when she felt a blow to the back of her head.

When she screamed and shouted for help, her attacker closed the door and resumed his attack.

The woman was eventually left with serious head injuries including a fractured skull, severe bruising to her back and bottom, and fractured hands.

She spent four weeks in hospital and is now registered disabled.

Stafasani, of Brunswick Court, Bermondsey, southeast London, denied attempted murder and aggravated burglary but was convicted by the jury.

He showed no reaction as he was handed an 18-year prison sentence with an extended licence period of four years.

Detective Inspector Damian Ash, the senior investigating officer, said:

‘This was a particularly heinous attack in the victim’s own home, which involved careful and premeditated planning by Stafasani.

‘He abseiled into her flat and lay in wait before carrying out a vicious attack and leaving her for dead.

‘We do not know the motive behind this attack. Fatmir Stafasani has remained silent throughout, and even now has shown no emotion.

‘I’d like to pay tribute to Detective Constable Alex Rum who worked tirelessly on the case, to the medical staff at St Mary’s Hospital who no doubt saved the victim’s life and most of all to the victim herself who showed great courage throughout this investigation.

‘The investigation team and I hope she can continue to make the best possible recovery.’