Zara Aleena’s killer’s sentence reduction bid ‘has reignited family’s agony’

The victim’s aunt, Farah Naz, said it was ‘beyond belief’ that Jordan McSweeney had ‘the audacity to appeal’.

Farah Naz, aunt of murdered law graduate Zara Aleena, said her killer’s appeal bid has caused the family profound distress (Yui Mok/PA) (PA Archive)

A bid by the killer of law graduate Zara Aleena to reduce his sentence has “reignited the agony of the atrocious crime committed”, her family said.

The 35-year-old was sexually assaulted and murdered by Jordan McSweeney as she walked home from a night out in Ilford, east London, early on June 26 2022.

McSweeney, who refused to attend his sentencing hearing last December, was handed a life sentence with a minimum term of 38 years after admitting the crimes.

But his appeal on Friday to reduce the minimum term of his sentence has caused “profound distress” for Ms Aleena’s family, her aunt said.

Farah Naz said it was “beyond belief that this individual, who was too spineless to attend his own sentencing, has the audacity to appeal the very sentence he couldn’t be bothered to witness”.

In a statement following the Court of Appeal hearing, she said: “We are compelled to express our profound distress in response to the appeal made by the individual responsible for the murder of our beloved Zara Aleena.

“This appeal, coming after a trial where he was sentenced, has reignited the agony of the atrocious crime committed. We firmly believe that his minimum sentence should not be reduced, and he should serve a life imprisonment for the inhuman act he committed.”

McSweeney appeared for the start of proceedings via videolink from Long Lartin prison in Worcestershire, but left before the hearing was completed.

Around 45 minutes after the hearing started it was paused and an unnamed prison officer, who appeared on the link with McSweeney, said: “He’s heard enough and has got everything he requires in his cell.”

Ms Naz said this behaviour had underscored the killer’s “enduring disregard for all”.

She said: “He has consistently displayed a complete lack of remorse in his behaviour, and today, his indifference and impoliteness when leaving the prison’s video room, declaring he had heard enough, during the ongoing proceedings, were nothing short of expected.”

The hearing was told Ms Aleena’s murder was an “opportunistic” attack.

McSweeney’s barrister George Carter-Stephenson KC said: “At the outset can I make it clear that it is accepted that the attack and murder in this case was particularly savage and brutal and nothing I intend to say in this address is in any way meant to detract from that.”

The barrister said the sentencing judge, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb, had wrongly factored in the “aggravating features” in the case.

Mr Carter-Stephenson said it was accepted there was a sexual motive to the crime but argued the murder itself was not premeditated.

He later said the “the resistance put up by the victim” caused “the level of aggression to rise” during the assault.

“I don’t mean to put any blame on the victim at all,” he added.

Judges were later told Ms Aleena was knocked unconscious early during the attack.

Mr Carter-Stephenson said: “Given the nature of the attack … the time for the suffering of this victim was limited. That, to some extent, must impact how one views that as an aggravating feature.”

The barrister later said McSweeney had ADHD, which should have been taken into account in sentencing.

“They are wired somewhat differently than most people. They are impulsive… their behaviour is less predictable,” he said.

The sexual assault of Ms Aleena was the culmination of hours of planning and premeditation

Oliver Glasgow KC, for the CPS

However, Oliver Glasgow KC, for the Crown Prosecution Service, said the suggestion McSweeney had not intended to kill Ms Aleena was “unsustainable”.

He told the court McSweeney had spent two hours stalking several women before turning his attention to Ms Aleena.

Mr Glasgow told the court he “wanted to avoid any risk that he could subsequently be identified by any victim”.

The barrister said: “This was not a moment of impulsive aggression. It was a considered act and the product of hours of pursing women along the streets.

“There was nothing that Zara Aleena did that provoked the violence that was given to her.”

Mr Glasgow also told the court there had been no expression of remorse from McSweeney and later noted he had not attended his sentencing and left his appeal hearing.

Mr Glasgow added in written submissions: “The submission that the intention to murder Ms Aleena was formed ‘on the spur of the moment’ flies in the face of the applicant’s behaviour preceding the violence.

“The sexual assault of Ms Aleena was the culmination of hours of planning and premeditation.”

He added that McSweeney was “determined to find and attack a vulnerable female and to sexually assault her, and it was inevitable, once he had embarked on that attack, that he would kill his victim”.

The Old Bailey previously heard McSweeney stalked Ms Aleena along Cranbrook Road before grabbing her from behind and dragging her into a driveway.

The attack, caught on grainy CCTV, lasted nine minutes and resulted in 46 separate injuries.

Ms Aleena, who was training to be a solicitor, was found struggling to breathe and later died in hospital.

Mr Glasgow described the attack as “utterly abhorrent” and said the sentencing judge was right to find McSweeney had no mitigation aside from his guilty pleas.

At the hearing before the Lady Chief Justice Lady Carr, Mrs Justice McGowan and Mrs Justice Ellenbogen, Lady Carr said their decision would be given in writing “as soon as possible”.

Ms Naz said the family anticipates that the sentencing “will be upheld and receive validation from the judges currently deliberating”.