Failures by the police and prison and probation services contributed to the death of Zara Aleena, who was murdered as she walked home from a night out in east London, an inquest jury has found.
Jordan McSweeney killed the 35-year-old aspiring lawyer as she walked home from a night out in Ilford in the early hours of 26 June 2022, nine days after he was released from prison on licence.
An official found he should have been assessed by probation officers as a high-risk offender, but was classed as posing a medium risk when he was released part-way through a sentence.
Aleena died in hospital from a blunt force head injury and neck compression, the jury said.
In a statement Farah Naz, Aleena’s aunt, said “her brutal murder could and should have been prevented”, adding: “It is clear from the evidence we have heard that there are significant issues of underresourcing across the system.”
The area coroner Nadia Persaud asked the jury to consider whether any failings by the prison and probation services or Met police contributed to Aleena’s death. The jury found: “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, [and] act and plan in response to the risk in a sufficient, timely and coordinated way.”
The jury said there were “significant failures to appropriately assess risk by HMPPS [HM Prison and Probation Service] – the risk registered at medium and should have been high from February 2021”.
These included failure to identify “significant events”, which should have led to the risk being re-evaluated, and that information-sharing, decision-making, supervision and training were “inadequate”.
The jury added there was “failure to define, understand and execute roles and responsibilities across multiple agencies to manage the offender effectively”.
“Attempts [by the Metropolitan police] to arrest the offender post-recall were impeded by a number of factors, including inaccurate data on the recall and a lack of professional curiosity and follow-ups on Saturday 25 June.”
Police were unable to make contact with McSweeney after he was released on licence on 17 June 2022, but probation waited five days before initiating his recall to prison, the inquest heard.
He missed his probation appointment on the day he was let out and his mother told staff he had passed out drunk at her house, the jury was told.
The appointment was rescheduled twice but McSweeney did not attend either appointment, and when officers approached his mother again she said she did not know where he was.
Despite the lack of contact, his recall was not initiated until 22 June and the recall report was signed on 24 June 2022, the inquest heard.
Police were given powers to arrest McSweeney at 4.10pm the same day. In the early hours of 26 June, McSweeney murdered Aleena.
His recently qualified probation worker, Austin Uwaifo, said McSweeney should have been graded high risk and, had he been, he would have pushed for him to have been recalled to prison earlier.
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.”
Uwaifo said the probation office was not staffed over the weekend but that he would have requested a faster out-of-hours emergency recall if McSweeney had been graded high risk.
The police officer who actioned McSweeney’s recall said initial inquiries into his whereabouts were closed prematurely and more checks should have been carried out.
The Met police operations sergeant Ian Batten said he did not foresee that McSweeney was a risk to the public after receiving a recall to prison notice for him on 24 June 2022.
Batten also said he did not know initial inquiries into McSweeney’s whereabouts were closed before the end of his shift.
Persaud paid tribute to Aleena who died exactly two years ago. She said: “I would like to send my deepest condolences to the family and friends of Zara.”
A video montage of pictures and videos from throughout Aleena’s life was played in east London coroner’s court on Wednesday.
McSweeney was handed a life sentence with a minimum term of 38 years at the Old Bailey in December 2022 after admitting to Aleena’s murder and sexual assault.
In November 2023, he won a court of appeal application to reduce the minimum term of his life sentence.
