Zara Aleena’s killer ‘won’t enter dock as he doesn’t want to see CCTV from night of murder’

A sexual predator who murdered Zara Aleena has been jailed for a minimum of 38 years at the Old Bailey, but refused to enter the court for his sentencing.

Jordan McSweeney brutally killed the 35-year-old law graduate as she walked home from a night out in London, early on Sunday June 26.

Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb called McSweeney a ‘pugnacious and deeply violent man’ as she said she found no mitigation for his sentence as he had shown no remorse for his actions.

The court heard how McSweeney attempted to follow several women that night before he violently attacked Ms Aleena when she was ‘just minutes’ away from her home.

He stalked her along Cranbrook Road before dragging her into a driveway where he brutally kicked, stamped on and sexually assaulted her, before leaving her for dead.

Emergency services were called at 2.44am after she was found with severe head injuries and struggling to breathe.

Ms Aleena was taken to hospital where she died later that morning from multiple injuries.

McSweeney, 29, of Dagenham, Essex,  was arrested the next day and pleaded guilty to her murder and sexual assault last month.

Jordan McSweeney  will be sentenced later today for killing Zara Aleena. He ambushed her and punched her in the back of the head before dragging the 35-year-old into a driveway and kicking her early on Sunday June 26

Zara Aleena (pictured), 35, who had recently started work at the Royal Courts of Justice, died after she was ambushed as she walked home in the early hours of the morning

Undated CCTV image issued by the Metropolitan Police of sexual predator Jordan McSweeney just before he attacked Zara Aleena

After his arrest, McSweeney refused to answer questions but told officers he had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) 

Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb called McSweeney a ‘pugnacious and deeply violent man’ as she sent him to prison for life

McSweeney had 28 previous convictions for 69 separate offences at the time of the murder including burglary, theft of a vehicle, criminal damage, assaulting police officers and assaulting members of the public while on bail.

The Metropolitan Police said the Probation Service had commenced recall proceedings on June 22, just days before the murder, after he missed two appointments.

The force said it was informed on June 24 and attended an address linked to McSweeney the following day to arrest him but he was not there, and he was subsequently arrested on June 27.

Earlier on the evening of June 25, McSweeney had been ejected from a pub for making ‘persistent advances’ to a female member of bar staff.

Mr Glasgow said the defendant then ‘roamed the streets looking for a woman to attack and to sexually assault’.

He told the court: ‘He followed a number of different women and, given what happened to Zara Aleena, there can be no doubt that they were lucky to have escaped unharmed. Tragically for Zara Aleena, of course, she was not so fortunate.’

He followed Ms Aleena down Cranbrook Road before grabbing her and dragging her into a driveway.

Mr Glasgow said: ‘Despite being only yards from a public street and from residential properties, the defendant attacked Zara Aleena with a savagery that is almost impossible to believe.

‘He repeatedly kicked and stamped on her head and body, he tore some of her clothes from her body in order that he could sexually assault her, and then he attacked her again, kicking and stamping on her face and neck, and returning several times to continue the brutal violence.

‘Finally, once satisfied that she would no longer be able to report him for what he had done, he walked away, taking her mobile telephone with him which he threw over a garden wall, thus ensuring that neither she nor anyone else who might find her could use the phone to call for help.

‘He walked back to the caravan where he was living and the following morning, having hidden the bloodstained clothes and shoes he had been wearing during the attack, was seen laughing and joking with his friends; seemingly without any concern for what he had done or for the fate he had forced upon Zara Aleena.’

Court artist sketch by Elizabeth Cook of Jordan McSweeney in the dock at the Old Bailey, where he pleaded guilty to the murder and sexual assault of Zara Aleena

The court was told McSweeney was a prolific offender and had been released from prison on licence on June 17 – just days before the murder.

He had been in prison for criminal damage, racially aggravated harassment and unauthorised possession of a knife in prison.

A spokesperson said: ‘The actions of officers following McSweeney’s recall to prison were reviewed by officers from the Met’s Directorate of Professional Standards who found there was no indication of misconduct.’

Ms Aleena had begun working at the Royal Courts of Justice five weeks before her death and was ‘the happiest she had ever been’, her family said.

Zara Aleena’s aunt Farah Naz set out the impact of her niece’s ‘senseless, merciless, brutal, attack’.

She spoke out to help ‘deepen understanding of how a family is destroyed in such a short time’ and encourage an intelligent conversation about ‘what we all need to do as a society’.

Speaking in court, Ms Naz said: ‘We lost her and more. When a human is murdered, a family is murdered. And when a human is murdered, humanity is murdered.

‘Everything she was, everything she worked so hard for, every dream was destroyed by someone she did not even know, someone else’s sense of entitlement.

‘She was just walking home.’

Ms Aleena’s elderly grandmother Rashda Parveen sobbed as she read out her victim statement in court, saying she hoped the killer ‘would never find peace’. 

Jordan McSweeney’s ex-girlfriend Samantha Bryan (pictured together) told MailOnline she regrets not pressing assault charges against him who went on to kill aspiring lawyer Zara Aleena earlier this year

McSweeney beat Samantha for years, leaving her with injuries like this one when he booted her in the face

Ms Bryan, 30, says Jordan is a ‘wannabe gangster’ – who made his own posters on Facebook

The ex-girlfriend of the murderer revealed that she endured four years of violence and controlling behaviour at his hands before summoning up the courage to leave him for good.

But Samantha Bryan, 30, now regrets not pressing assault charges against the ‘wannabe gangster’ who went on to kill aspiring lawyer Zara Aleena earlier this year.

Ms Bryan told MailOnline that McSweeney once stamped on her so badly, it left an imprint of his trainer on her face – just as he did to Ms Aleena, who suffered fatal head injuries.

Describing going to the police she said: ‘I gave them a statement, telling them just what he’d done, but I dropped the charges. I just couldn’t go through with it. At the time, my thinking was that I’d at last got rid of him from my life after four horrible years and I was still scared he – or one of his acolytes – would seek some sort of vengeance.

‘Knowing what he did to the poor woman in Ilford, I wish I had gone ahead with it. Jordan is nothing more than a wannabe gangster with no respect whatsoever for women. I hope he’s locked up for the rest of his life – no woman is safe around him.’

McSweeney would also punch, kick and bite her and once threw her out into the street after snatching her phone, forcing her to borrow a mobile from a homeless man so she could call her mother to collect her.

And Ms Bryan, who became pregnant by McSweeney, also told how he would cynically cuddle up to her at night – only in order to hide her wounds from his aunt when the young couple stayed with her.