Sabina Nessa killing: Man charged with murder of UK teacher

Sabina Nessa was killed as she walked to meet a friend at a pub a few minutes from her south London home. Photo / Metropolitan Police, via AP

A 36-year-old man has been charged with the murder of the primary school teacher Sabina Nessa in southeast London.

Koci Selamaj, from Eastbourne, East Sussex, was arrested in the coastal town in the early hours of Sunday, and a light-coloured Nissan Micra was seized in a leafy residential street around half a mile away.

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He will appear before Willesden Magistrates' Court on Tuesday (UK time).

Nessa was killed as she walked through Cator Park in Kidbrooke, southeast London, on her way to meet a friend on September 17.

Her body was found nearly 24 hours later covered with leaves near a community centre in the park.

The suspect is understood to have been working as a food delivery driver in Eastbourne and is thought to be originally from eastern Europe.

People react as they gather during a vigil for murdered 28-year-old teacher Sabina Nessa in Kidbrooke in south-east London. Photo / David Cliff, AP

A worker in a newsagents near the flat where he was living said he would come in to the shop to top up his phone or energy key, but would not make conversation.

"He was so quiet, he didn't say anything, just came to top up and left," the member of shop staff said.

Nessa taught a year one class at Rushey Green Primary School in Catford, south-east London.

On Friday, hundreds of people - including her sister - gathered for a candlelit vigil organised in Pegler Square, Kidbrooke, in her memory.

Jebina Yasmin Islam, Nessa's sister, broke down as she addressed crowds.

She said: "Words cannot describe how we are feeling, this feels like we are stuck in a bad dream and can't get out of it - our world is shattered, we are simply lost for words.

"No family should go through what we are going through."