EVIL LURKING
Chilling CCTV shows Zara Aleena’s killer Jordan McSweeney stalking women before he bludgeoned aspiring lawyer to death
CHILLING CCTV footage shows Zara Aleena's killer Jordan McSweeney stalking women before he attacked her.
McSweeney bludgeoned aspiring lawyer Zara to death while she walked home from a night out in June.
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In footage released by the Met Police, McSweeney, 29, can be seen following a number of women in the hours before.
He stalked two women in particular for "prolonged periods" - one of which ran into a nearby house for safety.
McSweeney had been thrown out of a bar around 11pm before starting his campaign.
Shortly after 2am, he spotted Zara and followed her for 10 minutes before fatally injuring her.
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After Zara's murder, police say an officer - who had dealt with McSweeney for a previous offence - was able to provide detectives with his name.
A fingerprint found in blood at the scene was also able to confirm a match.
The coward killer refused to face the court today where he was being sentenced.
Zara, 35, was just yards from her house in Ilford, East London, when she was murdered as she walked home from a night out.
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And twisted McSweeney had stalked the streets for a victim before he pounced on Zara, and dragged her into a driveway where he repeatedly kicked and stamped on her.
The monster, who had been released from prison just days before the killing, pleaded guilty to murder and sexual assault last month.
He was today sentenced to a life behind bars - with a minimum term of 38 years - by Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb at the Old Bailey.
Outlining the details of McSweeney's "repeated heavy assaults", the senior judge said: "It is clear that she struggled and fought him but he had the advantage of surprise and strength and he was successful in subduing her."
Justice Cheema-Grubb added that McSweeney was "wholly aware of what he was doing" and having "satisfied his lust" set about "destroying the woman he had degraded".
Earlier in the day McSweeney refused to come into court and stand at the dock to hear his fate.
The killer claimed he didn't "want to relive" the events at his sentencing when CCTV footage is played.
However, the senior judge said the sentencing should go ahead in his absence, adding: "It seems to me we should proceed. I do not want members of the family to wait any longer."
She continued: "I would like him to come up and come to court. It is not entirely to his discredit that he doesn't want to see what he actually did."
But, despite having the option to temporarily leave the dock when the CCTV footage was played, McSweeney refused to step foot in the court room.
Members of Zara's family, including her grandmother and aunt, sat in the well of the court but left as footage of her was played.
The court heard how Zara was returning home from a night out in the early hours of June 26 when the horror unfolded.
CCTV captured her final movements - being followed by McSweeney as she walked on the residential road.
But prior to that the cameras snapped him as he "roamed the streets looking for a woman to attack and to sexually assault".
McSweeney followed four woman before Zara.
He had also been kicked out of a pub for making "persistent advances" to a female member of bar staff just hours beforehand.
Prior to that CCTV footage showed him greeting women at the door of the bar, putting his arms around them without consent and attempting to kiss them.
Prosecutor Oliver Glasgow KC told the court today: "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."
'NO CHANCE OF SURVIVAL'
He wiped away a tear as he said: "When Jordan McSweeney left the pub in Ilford on the night of 25 June 2021, he was determined to find, to attack and to kill a woman."
Mr Glasgow added: "At the time she was attacked, Zara Aleena was only minutes from her front door and she had every right to feel safe on the street - streets where she lived and which she knew well.
"But once she had become a target for this defendant that right was taken from her in a terrifying and ruthless manner, and, quite simply, she stood no chance of survival."
McSweeney had been on licence at the time of the brutal killing for criminal damage, racially aggravated harassment and unauthorised possession of a knife in prison.
He had been released from prison for robbery just nine days before the savage attack.
The creep has 28 previous convictions for 69 offences - including burglary, theft of a motor vehicle, driving offences, criminal property, assaults on police and assaults on members of the public.
'SAVAGERY'
It was also revealed McSweeney boasted of having massive knives and posed in wanted posters before the murder.
He posted a number of pictures of himself on social media glorifying a life of crime.
On that horrific night, Zara was discovered partially clothed, profusely bleeding, and struggling to breath by horrified neighbours who heard her screams.
The prosecutor said she had been attacked with "savagery that is almost impossible to believe".
A post-mortem gave her cause of death as blunt force trauma injury and neck compression.
McSweeney was identified as Zara's killer after chilling footage showed him stalking then attacking her.
Cameras had followed him to the grotty caravan where he was staying while working at a nearby funfair.
Officers searching the home found "blood stained clothing and shoes".
They also discovered fingerprints in blood stains on a wall where Zara was attacked that matched McSweeney.
'BRUTAL ATTACK'
The killer was quizzed by police but sat silently through all three interviews and would not even confirm his personal details.
He instead only threatened officers and told them he suffered from ADHD and split personality disorder.
Zara was an aspiring lawyer who had just started working at the Royal Courts of Justice.
Speaking in court today, Zara's aunty Farah Naz set told of what the "senseless, merciless, brutal, attack" had done to her family.
She said her niece always "brought a zest to our lives, joy, colour and light".
Farah added: "We lost her and more. When a human is murdered, a family is murdered. And when a human is murdered, humanity is murdered.
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"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."
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