Zara Aleena's family breaks silence as her murderer is caught having sex with prison worker
7 January 2024, 14:34 | Updated: 7 January 2024, 15:25
Zara Aleena's aunt has described her fury after it emerged the law graduate's killer had sex with a female worker in Belmarsh Prison.
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The 35-year-old was sexually assaulted and killed by Jordan McSweeney as she walked home at night in Ilford, east London, in June 2022.
He grabbed her from behind and dragged her to a driveway so he could unleash his attack, which saw him kick and stamp on her in near-10 minute ordeal.
McSweeney was jailed for life in December 2022 as a judge described him as "deeply violent".
But it has emerged he had sex with a 32-year-old prison worker at maximum security Belmarsh Prison in south east London. The Mirror reported she is an agency employee and not a prison guard.
Zara's aunt Farah Naz was told about the incident last April soon after it happened, but it was only made public last week.
"Is Belmarsh a social club or our country's most high-security prison? There are serious questions to be answered and we need a public investigation," she said.
"Zara doesn't even get to breathe but her killer gets to have sex in prison. There has to be a cover-up inside Belmarsh for all those people not to know. Otherwise the system is working worse than we believed."
Guards at Belmarsh kicked down a locked door to find McSweeney having sex with the worker.
Read more: Zara Aleena's killer 'caught having sex with female prison worker' inside HMP Belmarsh
Farah said she was told in a meeting in June that Alex Chalk, the justice secretary, had not heard of it.
She said she asked him at the end what he was going to do about Belmarsh.
"I was alluding to the sexual relationship Zara's killer had been having. He went bright red," she said.
"He said, 'I don't know what you are talking about'. His secretary had to find out and tell him. He then looked at his team and said, 'We must look at this'."
The Ministry of Justice insists there was no cover up and said that the delay came from Mr Chalk having been recently appointed at the time.
Farah questioned how a prisoner who is meant to be locked up 23 hours a day could meet a worker, or even have access to a woman given his crime.
The woman has been arrested on suspicion of misconduct in a public office and has been released under investigation.
The whole case has been damaging for the justice system. There were questions as to how McSweeney, who had 69 offences on his record and tried to target five other women on the night he killed Zara, was free to commit his crime.
He was out of jail on licence but had been recalled to prison two days prior because he had missed probation meetings.
Police could not find him at his home when they turned up to arrest him.
Just hours later, McSweeney killed Zara.
He refused to attend his sentencing after he was caught, and his initial minimum term of 38 years was lowered to 34 in October despite him walking out halfway through the hearing, saying he had "heard enough".
That came despite authorities discovering he had sex with the prison worker.
Farah said: "Zara's killer has exposed the weakness in our creaking systems so many times. It is simply not right.
"It is even worse to think they took five years off his sentence just months after he'd been having sex in prison. Surely you shouldn't be rewarding someone who has sex in prison with a reduced sentence?"
