Terrifying CCTV image of obsessed stalker clutching a crowbar after abseiling into victim’s flat and battering her after she spurned his love

CCTV images show a stalker clutching a crowbar moments after he abseiled through a woman's bathroom skylight and battered her almost to death.

"Infatuated" Fatmir Stafasani, 49, used high-tech climbing gear to lower himself down from the roof before lying in wait for his victim Blerta Sulaj.

The fanatic ambushed her when she arrived home, screaming "this is your last day" as he smashed her over the head repeatedly in her top-floor flat in Fulham, West London.

After weeks in hospital with a fractured skull and hands she was able to pick out Stafasani at an identity parade - where she screamed "monster" at the screen and covered her eyes with her hands.

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

The webbing, which bore Stafasani's DNA along, 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.

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

The victim, in her 40s, said she had known him for a number of years from their native country of Albania.

Prosecutor Michelle Fawcett told a jury: "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 they were married.

"He was that infatuated with her."

Stafasani, of Bermondsey, South-East London, 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 said 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 May 11 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, you were an active and agile man, as can be seen from the CCTV.

"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.

"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 shortly after lunchtime on March 20 this year.

She went into 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 assault.

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 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."

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