A YEAR on from the brutal murder of her niece Zara Aleena after a night out, Farah Naz is fighting to change the law that let her cowardly killer avoid hearing the family’s harrowing victim statements.
Jordan McSweeney, who had just been released from prison when he attacked Zara, refused to attend court for his sentencing to 38 years for her murder — denying Farah and her relatives the chance to tell him how he had ruined their lives.
The 30-year-old fairground worker was supposed to have been monitored by probation services, who classified him as just a “medium risk”.
Today Farah says she will spend the first anniversary of Zara’s death at a landmark meeting with Justice Secretary Alex Chalk, urging him to change laws so killers are legally forced to face sentencing in person.
In an exclusive interview Farah says: “Zara was 5ft 2in but she thought she was a giant.
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“She wasn’t afraid to face up to what was wrong. Her entire murder was on CCTV. I’ve seen it, and she fought to the end.
“Her killer might have been given 38 years but he has never faced up to what he has done. He sat in his cell as a judge passed his sentencing and myself and Zara’s grandmother were denied the chance to look him in the whites of his eyes and read out victim impact statements.
“Meeting Alex Chalk in person on the anniversary of her death will be poignant. I don’t want others to go through what we did.
“The court process should be a shaming one. But how can that be if you don’t have to face your sentence?
Honouring Zara’s name
“I want to tell him that it’s not just prison that’s a deterrent, that we take freedom away from that person, but actually that process of being shamed during your trial.
“It’s an important statement to make to other prisoners and potential murderers — this man is scum, what he did is the worst of the worst, this is what happens to him as a result.
“If we can change this it will go some way to honouring Zara’s name.”
At her meeting with Mr Chalk, Farah, a trauma psychotherapist, says she also intends to talk about making prisons more of a deterrent for killers.
And she believes more could have been done to prevent 35-year-old Zara’s death if passers-by had interrupted her attack, and she questioned whether the assault was a racist killing.
She also told how the family are holding a silent vigil against violence this Sunday near where Zara died, and urged supporters to attend.
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Farah and the rest of the family will retrace Zara’s final footsteps, and she said: “By attending vigils, we affirm our commitment to a society that values human life, demands justice and stands against violence.”
A 2016 report said McSweeney admitted he was consumed by rage and “does not know how to control it . . . [and] he feels it is very likely that he will offend in the future”.
Racist killing
Yet probation officers had failed to consider him a high-risk offender and he was released from a prison sentence with no known address or GPS tag, despite him failing to show up for appointments, including one on the day of his release.
Staff should have recalled him to prison on June 20 after he missed a second appointment, but they waited until he had missed a third.
There was then a delay in signing the paperwork until June 24, when his location was unknown.
Less than 48 hours later, on June 26 last year, McSweeney was on the prowl, following at least five other women before targeting Zara as she walked home.
He dragged her into a driveway in Ilford, East London, where he violently attacked and sexually assaulted her, leaving her partially naked and struggling to breathe.
He then fled with her handbag, phone and keys at 2.44am.
A passer-by gave Zara cardiopulmonary resuscitation but she died hours later in hospital.
Farah said: “The night that Zara was murdered the guy could have been interrupted so many times.
“And he wasn’t, because we’ve become afraid and we walk with headphones in our ears, keep our heads down. But we should be more vigilant as a society.
“When I think about her last moments I think she would have been so worried for her mother to have to discover what had happened to her.
“She would have been so worried for her grandmother and for all of us as a family, thinking what was going to happen to them.”
Farah says the family are still unclear as to whether the attack was a racist killing — but she questions whether Zara would still be alive today if she had been white.
She said: “Zara was killed by a stranger. If stranger killings are on the increase, what does that say about a society?
“These are important conversations to be had about what that says about a society. It spells out entitlement.
“In the case of Zara it spells out an increase of male toxicity. We don’t know and we may never know whether it was a racist killing.
“Had Zara been white, would he have sexually attacked her and left her to live? Would he have killed her in a less brutal way?
“The way that he killed her was so extreme. It was barbaric. It stinks of a lynching. There are important questions to be asked here when a stranger killing happens.”
In December, McSweeney pleaded guilty to murder — and was told this would be considered when he was sentenced.
Just days later Farah and Zara’s grandmother were ready to deliver their powerful victim impact statements as they attended McSweeney’s sentencing — only for him to refuse to leave his cell to appear in court.
The vigil for Zara is not just for Zara, it’s for the two women who get murdered every week in England, it’s for all the people who get murdered. So please join if you can.
Farah Naz
In his absence, he was given life in prison for Zara’s murder with a minimum term of 38 years.
When a defendant refuses to attend court it is up to the prison where they are being held to decide if and what “reasonable force” should be used to secure their attendance.
But non-appearance is a trend that is spreading in the justice system.
Earlier this year, Thomas Cashman, who shot and killed nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel in her own home in Liverpool, refused to leave his cell to face his victim’s loved ones.
Farah said: “We were ready. Seeing him face up to his crimes and hear our victim impact statements were our last bit of power.
“By not attending, that was taken away from us. It has to change. Surely the judgment is part of the punishment.
“We need to see that process will deter further crime, and how can the process feel like a punishment if the convict exercises their bit of power?”
Zara, who was brought up in a large family which came to Britain from Pakistan in the 1960s, was an aspiring lawyer.
Farah said: “She was quite a powerful force in our family — powerful and strong-minded and not afraid to speak up about things, hence her interest in pursuing a career in law.
“She was a proponent of the underdog and for doing things right — people, communities, she always felt for the elderly on the street.
“She was quite old-fashioned in her values. She was the young woman who would take the shopping from the older woman or the older man and carry it to their door for them.
“She was the woman who saw a stray cat and took it to the vet and then found a home for it.
We were ready. Seeing him face up to his crimes, hear our victim impact statements, were our last bit of power. And by not attending, that was taken away from us.
Farah Naz
“She forced our neighbours to take this cat — she said, ‘We can’t just have this cat roaming the streets, we’ve got to give it a home. I can’t take any more myself’.
“And she was funny and she laughed easily, and she loved music and she was loyal. She was a good friend, and she would say that her grandmother was her best friend.”
She added: “The emotion of losing her never goes away. In the last few months I’ve realised that actually there’s almost a madness within that reflects a trauma.
“Sometimes I notice the way people look at me and the emotion overwhelms and I have to be very measured and thoughtful, and it’s important I am still articulate and I convey a message that’s not just emotional.
“It makes a meaning out of something that was so senseless. And it makes me and my family feel we’re doing something for Zara, we are fighting for justice.
“For Zara it’s too late, but to honour her name and to do it for women and girls, it’s doing it for everyone else’s daughter.
“We have to make a reason out of it, in order for it not to devastate us, and also to honour Zara.”
That is why she will meet Mr Chalk to discuss changes to the prison and criminal justice system.
But before that, she will join hundreds of others this Sunday at the vigil in Valentines Park, near where Zara died, to remember her.
Everyone who plans to be there has been asked to wear white.
Farah said: “I urge everyone to attend vigils for murder victims. The vigil for Zara is not just for Zara, it’s for the two women who get murdered every week in England, it’s for all the people who get murdered.
“That’s one thing we can all do, so please join if you can.
“Murderers are a minority, and we have to know and feel that standing arm in arm in unison we are stronger than them.”
- The silent vigil for Zara Aleena starts at 1.30pm on June 25 at Valentines Park in Ilford.
