Family of murdered law graduate Zara Aleena are ‘tortured’ by the thought her death was ‘preventable’, inquest hears
Zara Aleena’s family are being ‘tortured’ into thinking her ‘death was preventable’, an inquest has heard, almost two years after she was sexually assaulted and murdered in a random attack by Jordan McSweeney.
McSweeney, 31, killed the 35-year-old law graduate as she walked home after a night out in Ilford, East Londonasked on June 26, 2022.
McSweeney was given a life sentence with a minimum term of 38 years at the Old Bailey in December 2022 after admitting the murder and assault of Ms Aleena.
In November 2023, he won a Court of Appeal bid to reduce the minimum term of his life sentence to 33 years.
Ms Aleena’s aunt, Farah Naz, told the jury at East London’s Coroner’s Court in Walthamstow on Monday that the family are being “tortured into thinking Zara’s death was preventable”.
Zara Aleena, 35, was sexually assaulted and killed while walking home after a night out in June 2022
Zara’s aunt told the jury at East London Coroner’s Court in Walthamstow on Monday that the family are being ‘tortured into thinking Zara’s death was preventable’
She added that her niece’s murder highlighted “the crumbling justice system (that) is meant to protect us.”
Mrs Naz said: ‘Since her death we have been campaigning so that our daughters, sisters and friends can be safe and protected in a way Zara never was. This is Zara’s legacy.’
In a pen portrait, Ms Naz became emotional as she told the judges about her niece’s “sparkling eyes and curly, jet-black hair” and “glorious laughter.”
Ms Naz said Ms Aleena cared for her mother and grandmother, ‘the rock of our family’, and it was ‘the proudest moment for all of us’ when she was offered a job as a legal assistant at the Royal Courts of Justice.
She described her niece as “a carefree spirit with a caring heart” and said she had worked on refugee resettlement in Britain.
Ms Naz said: “2022 was going to be her year of achieving her wildest dreams. She wanted to buy her own house, find Mr Right and have children. The future looked bright.’
She added: ‘One of the things she always said confidently was, ‘I know I’m a good person.’
“If she could speak here today, she would say, ‘I did nothing wrong.’
Ms Naz said Ms Aleena was ‘not just surviving, she was thriving’, adding: ‘Zara walked everywhere and one night she was walking home after a night out with a friend, she was sexually assaulted and murdered . She was 35 years old.
“She believed a woman could walk home, and her dreams and her future were brutally taken away.”
Zara’s aunt Farah Naz told the inquest on Monday that her niece was “thriving” and looking forward to the year ahead
Killer Jordan McSweeney, 31, recalled to prison two days before killing Zara
McSweeney had been released from prison on license on June 17, 2022 and, after breaching the terms of his license, the decision was made to recall him to prison on June 24, 2022 – two days before he committed murder.
On Monday, area coroner Nadia Persaud said the aim of the inquest is to “consider the circumstance that caused Zara’s death, including whether any action or omission by public authorities contributed to her death.”
The jury was told McSweeney was 29 at the time of the attack and had received his first prison sentence at the age of 13, having spent much of his adult years in prison or on license in the community.
Reading out a statement from a forensic pathologist, Ms Persaud said Ms Aleena’s cause of death was head injury and neck compression.
The investigation continues.
