A "deeply violent" man has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 38 years for the brutal murder of 35-year-old law graduate Zara Aleena. Ms Aleena died from several injuries after she was kicked and stamped on by Jordan McSweeney who followed her home earlier this year. McSweeney was also given a four-year sentence for sexual assault to run concurrently.
She was discovered during the early hours of June 26 in Cranbrooke Road in Ilford, East London, by passers-by who found her partially naked and struggling to breathe. She was taken to hospital where she tragically died later that morning.
McSweeney, 29, had only recently been released from prison and had 28 previous convictions for offences, including assault. After he was arrested on June 27, McSweeney made only "short, grumbled and unintelligible comments" under caution before disclosing that he was on medication for ADHD and suffered from split personality disorder. He then became very aggressive and threatened police officers saying "we're going to get fighting then" and "just because I'm in cuffs, don't think I'm, I'll bit your face off cuz... it's not a joke."
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He remained silent in interviews and closed his eyes as if trying to fall asleep and when asked about the murder of Zara, he yawned loudly and told the police that they were boring him.
CCTV was played in court of McSweeney's movements before the attack, as well as video of the horrific assault itself, during which he grabbed her from behind, dragged her onto the driveway and assaulted her. During the attack, Zara fought back as hard as she could but McSweeney overpowered her. He also took her belongings, and sexually assaulted her. He also returned to her body multiple times, before walking off and discarding her belongings.
Neighbours witnessed the terrifying attack and alerted the emergency services at 2.44am after discovering her body. At the time she was partially naked and struggling to breathe, with her belongings scattered along the road. Despite the best efforts of paramedics, she tragically passed away after arriving at the hospital.
A post-mortem examination concluded that she had died because of the traumatic brain injury, the prolonged neck compression and the blood loss. "In short, she had been stamped and strangled to death," the prosecutor said.
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