Man convicted of murdering two women and hiding their bodies in freezer

Police officer describes convicted sex offender as ‘repugnant individual who preys on vulnerable women in particular and abuses them, brings them into his control and causes them significant injury’

Zahid Younis, 36, denied two counts of murder but was found guilty of both charges (PA)

A man has been found guilty of murdering two women before stuffing their bodies inside a freezer in his flat.

Zahid Younis, 36, is facing a life sentence for killing Hungarian national Henriett Szucs, 34, and mother-of-three Mihrican “Jan” Mustafa, 38.

Szucs vanished in August 2016 and Mustafa went missing in May 2018.

Their bodies were found inside a small, padlocked, chest freezer in Younis’s flat in Vandome Close, Canning Town, in east London on 27 April last year.

Younis, a convicted sex offender known as “Boxer”, admitted putting the women in the freezer and pleaded guilty to two counts of preventing the lawful and decent burial of a body.

He denied two counts of murder but was found guilty of both charges by a jury at Southwark Crown Court on Thursday after 16 hours and six minutes of deliberations.

Younis showed no emotion as the verdicts were read out while members of Mustafa’s family, who attended every day of the three-week trial, said “yes” in the public gallery.

Her older sister, Mel Mustafa, said: “Thank you God, thank you.”

The judge, Ms Justice Cheema-Grubb, told Younis she will sentence him later on Thursday.

Detective Chief Inspector Simon Harding, of the Metropolitan Police, told the PA news agency: “Zahid Younis is a particularly dangerous and what I would describe as a repugnant individual who preys on vulnerable women in particular and abuses them, brings them into his control and causes them significant injury.”

Younis married a 14-year-old girl in an Islamic ceremony at a mosque in Walthamstow, east London, in 2004.

He was eventually jailed for two-and-a-half years for assaulting the teenager and unlawful sexual activity with a child and was put on the sex offenders’ register.

Younis was later sentenced to four years and 11 months imprisonment for two counts of wounding and one of assault occasioning actual bodily harm following an abusive relationship with a 17-year-old girl, which started in 2007 after his release from jail.

Prosecutor Duncan Penny QC told jurors at his double murder trial both Szucs and Mustafa were “vulnerable women living somewhat chaotic lives”, including periods of homelessness and class A drug addiction.

The court heard Younis bought a freezer shortly after killing Szucs “for the sole purpose” of concealing her body.

Mr Penny said police had gone to his flat to look for Younis when a uniformed officer found the appliance surrounded with flies in a cupboard before prying it open with a crowbar.

Police officer Mr Harding said the officer was acting on “an old-fashioned police hunch” when he discovered the women’s bodies, which had started to decompose after periods when the flat’s electricity had been cut off.

The victims had been subjected to “very significant violence” and suffered injuries consistent with kicking or stamping, Mr Penny said.

They had both suffered numerous rib fractures while Szucs had sustained “dreadful” head injuries and Mustafa’s sternum and larynx had been fractured.

Younis claimed he was out when Szucs died at his flat and did not tell police because he was “panicking”.

He told jurors he did not kill Mustafa and did not know how she died.

Younis said he paid a man to help him get Szucs’ body into the freezer and that his accomplice later blackmailed him into putting Mustafa’s corpse in the same place.

Mr Harding said Younis had shown no remorse as he subjected his victims’ families to a trial.

“They have been incredibly brave throughout this entire ordeal. It is an ordeal in court listening to his lies. It is hard to listen if you are a family,” he added.

Additional reporting by Press Association