Aspiring lawyer Zara Aleena was brutally murdered on her way home by sexual predator Jordan McSweeney. A protest is being held in her honour to campaign to end violence against women
Shortly after 2am on June 26, Zara Aleena was found badly beaten and partially naked on the pavement, not far from her home.
Another woman gave her CPR until paramedics arrived, but sadly, the 35-year-old trainee lawyer died in hospital the next morning. Zara had been walking home from an east London bar after meeting a friend when known offender, Jordan McSweeney, raped her in the street and took her life in the most brutal way possible.
He was a complete stranger to Zara, with chilling CCTV footage showing the prolific criminal stalking other lone women before singling her out and killing her. She tragically never made it safely back to her home in Ilford, and she is far from the only one.
On Sunday, Zara’s family will complete her journey as they retrace her final steps alongside relatives of other victims murdered by men. Her aunt, Farah Naz, will be joined by relatives of Sabina Nessa and Jan Mustafa in a rally to highlight the shocking 37 per cent rise in attacks on women in the past five years.
Primary school teacher Sabina, 28, was beaten and strangled by Koci Selamaj in Kidbrooke, in South East London, on September 17, 2021. The body of Jan, 38, was found next to Henriett Szucs, 34, in the padlocked freezer of Zahid Younis in Canning Town, East London, in April 2019.
“We stand in solidarity; we’re in a club we don’t want to be in and we understand each other’s pain,” Farah told the Mirror. “Knowing how Zara’s life ended, the devastation will never go away.
“People get sick, sometimes lives end early, but going this way, it’s unacceptable and deeply painful.” The family have held a remembrance every year following her murder, but Farah says it is more of a protest than a vigil.
She explained: “It’s a protest that Zara should have been able to walk home. We start at the spot she was killed and walk in silence, walk to my mother’s, we complete her walk to make a statement that any woman should be able to feel safe in their streets and in their home.
“We remind communities that this happened in our neighbourhood. Two women a week get murdered in the UK by men, and until we make dramatic changes, women are not safe.”
More than 3,000 offences of violence against women and girls are reported each day and one in 12 women are victims each year, according to the Office for National Statistics. Farah says she believes it is Zara’s legacy to pave the way for change for women’s safety.
“She was the most courageous woman I have known,” she said. “She was what you would call an upstander; she stood up for anything unfair, and even as a child, she was like that. The year before she died, she studied really hard for her LPC qualification and was on her way to continue on that path to make things right. She was no shrinking violet.”
Farah added: “For me, that is her legacy. We live in a society where we are afraid to stand up, and we sometimes turn the other way. We know the government on its own cannot change the misogynistic culture and powerful subcultures within our community. Make a statement with us and come and walk.”
An inquest into Zara’s death found failures “across multiple agencies” contributed to her death. McSweeney, who was jailed for life with a minimum of 33 years, had been released from prison nine days before that fateful night in 2022, with a probation report finding he hadn’t been categorised as high risk when he should have been. If he had, he would have been recalled to prison earlier.
Knowing Zara’s death could have been preventable makes it all the more distressing for her family, with determined Farah feeling a sense of responsibility to ensure another family doesn’t have to go through what they have. Since the horrific murder, the probation system has faced scrutiny and reform. Meanwhile emergency call handling has improved and offender risk tools are being used more effectively.
But so much more needs to be done, Farah insists. “The state has admitted mistakes and they have implemented changes but what we don’t have is monitoring of how effective they are. If we don’t keep monitoring those changes, holes will appear in the same places again.
“This Government is still quite new. We know they are making a concerted effort, but institutions are underfunded. It’s not about calling them out; it’s about keeping them on their toes so they are accountable.
“Violence against women isn’t inevitable; it’s enabled by silence, by complicity. Like Zara did, we must campaign. Justice must be a civic duty, not just a political promise. Zara’s death was a tragedy. But her life was a lesson. She was a model citizen — and now, in her name, we’re asking the rest of society to be one too.”
The vigil will take place on Sunday, June 29, at 1.30pm at Valentine’s Park in Ilford, East London.