An inquest jury has said the “failure of multiple state agencies” contributed to the death of a law graduate who was murdered by a man who had been released from prison nine days earlier.
Zara Aleena, 35, was sexually assaulted and beaten to death by Jordan McSweeney as she walked home in Ilford, east London, in the early hours of June 26, 2022.
On Thursday afternoon, at the conclusion of the inquest at East London Coroner’s Court, the jury recorded a narrative verdict.
The jury said, “Zara’s death was contributed to by the failure of multiple state agencies to act in accordance to policies and procedures—to share intelligence, accurately assess risk of serious harm, act and plan in response to the risk in a sufficient, timely and coordinated way.”
In December 2022, McSweeney pleaded guilty to murder at the Old Bailey and was jailed for life with a minimum term of 38 years, which was later reduced on appeal to 33 years.
In a statement after the jury’s verdict, Ms. Aleena’s aunt, Farah Naz, said, “Zara should be alive today.”
“Her brutal murder could and should have been prevented,” she added.
The inquest was told McSweeney’s prison offender manager did not share information about him being suspected of attacking fellow inmates with improvised weapons or being high on the drug spice a few months before he was released.
The inquest jury heard McSweeney was mistakenly categorised as a medium-risk rather than a high-risk offender.
Probation worker, Austin Uwaifo, who was inexperienced, told the inquest McSweeney should have been graded high risk and if he had he would have pushed for him to have been recalled to prison earlier.
The inquest heard McSweeney missed his first probation appointment on the day he was released from prison, June 17, and his mother told staff he had passed out drunk at her house.
Mr. Uwaifo told the inquest: “At the time, the thinking was that because he came out on the Friday, my thinking was to give him the opportunity to return, possibly he came out and decided to, for whatever reason, decided to go out and get drunk.”
The appointment was rearranged for the following Monday—but he again failed to show up and his mother told probation service staff she could not locate him.
He missed another appointment on June 22 and Mr. Uwaifo flagged this up to his boss, who recommended McSweeney be recalled to prison.
But the recall process was not signed off until 4:10 p.m. on June 24.
A few hours later—in the early hours of June 26—McSweeney killed Ms. Aleena, a law graduate, who was attacked as she returned home from a night out.
After leaving her for dead, he stole her handbag, mobile phone, and house keys.
McSweeney was logged as “medium risk” and the police categorised it as a standard recall rather than an “emergency recall.”
Kim Thornden-Edwards, chief probation officer for England and Wales, told the inquest the Probation Service admitted there were delays in sending the paperwork to initiate the recall of McSweeney.
CCTV Cameras Were Not Being Monitored
The inquest also heard from Sarah Foster, an operational manager at Redbridge Council, about the CCTV cameras which would later catch McSweeney stalking his prey.
It later emerged McSweeney spent three hours walking up and down the streets close to where Ms. Aleena was attacked, and followed her and another woman.
Ms. Foster said the cameras were “fully operational” but were not being monitored because the single CCTV patrol officer on duty that night had been told to focus on areas identified by the police as crime hotspots.
Ms. Foster said the council has increased the number of cameras from 651 to 742 in the wake of Ms. Aleena’s murder and hired two more CCTV patrol officers.
The inquest also heard McSweeney’s prison offender manager at HMP Pentonville, Emmerson Cole, told the jury he never actually spoke to him in person because of, “COVID-19 protocols.”
