Car rampage killer was on bail from immigration detention centre, court told

An Albanian national killed two people during a car rampage while mentally ill after being bailed from an immigration detention centre, a court has heard.

Warwick Crown Court was told “nothing was done” by the Home Office as 34-year-old Emiljano Kasaj failed to attend appointments for almost a year before he used his Mercedes to deliberately kill pedestrian Leo Moran and cyclist Joel Carriedo.

Kasaj, who was arrested on the morning of September 3 2023 after crashing into a house in Coventry, pleaded guilty in March this year to one count of attempted murder and two counts of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

His sentencing hearing on Monday was shown graphic CCTV footage of 44-year-old Mr Moran, who died of a neck injury, being struck at 7.56am in Gosford Street, Coventry, while another passer-by was knocked into a building and suffered a head wound.

Other footage, presented to the court by prosecutor Peter Grieves-Smith, showed the car driving off at speed with a smashed windscreen, and later travelling towards hospital worker Mr Carriedo, a father-of-two.

The NHS worker, whose bike was split in two by the impact, died of chest injuries after being struck head-on and knocked over a wall around seven minutes later in Woodway Lane, Coventry.

Opening the facts of the case against Kasaj, of no fixed address, Mr Grieves-Smith told High Court Judge Mr Justice Choudhury that the defendant then struck a house around 300 metres away and was arrested almost an hour later in a nearby garden.

The court heard Kasaj had used a false name and address to register the vehicle.

Mr Grieves-Smith told the court psychiatrists had diagnosed the defendant as suffering from a paranoid psychosis linked to schizophrenia – with him telling experts he believed he had to kill because he was being blackmailed.

The Crown’s barrister said of the defendant: “Born in July 1990, he is an Albanian national with no previous convictions or cautions.

“He told the defence psychiatrist that having left school he worked at a car wash and then travelled to Athens to find work. He came to the UK about two years prior to the offences and settled in Coventry.”

The court heard that Kasaj also said “he came to England for a better life” and was in “in the UK illegally” but did not claim benefits.

Mr Grieves-Smith told the court: “The police made inquiries about his status. Checks with Albanian authorities show he left Albania in January 2022.

“He was arrested for immigration offences in August 2022 as he had made no attempts to register and he was detained in order to be removed.

“He said he had been trafficked into the country in the back of a lorry.”

The court heard Kasaj was held at Harmondsworth Detention Centre in west London and attended a hospital during that period, although the visit was not related to his mental health.

On October 7 2022, the court heard, Kasaj was bailed to an address in Newfield Road, Coventry, with “a condition to sign on” at the Solihull Immigration Centre on December 5.

Mr Grieves-Smith continued: “He failed to appear for this and all other appointments.

“So at the time he committed these offences he was subject to bail conditions imposed because of his immigration status. He was in breach of them but nothing was done about it by the Home Office.”

Psychiatric evidence presented to the court showed that Kasaj suffers from “a major mental illness, the most likely diagnosis being schizophrenia” which may have been aggravated by use of cannabis or cocaine in the weeks before the incident.

Kasaj, who appeared in the dock alongside an interpreter and several mental health nurses, is due to be sentenced later on Monday.