A sexual predator who stalked and murdered law graduate Zara Aleena has won an appeal to reduce the minimum term of his life sentence.

Jordan McSweeney, 29, stalked at least five women before he targeted 35-year-old Ms Aleena in Ilford, east London, as she walked home after spending an evening with friends in the early hours of 26 June last year.

McSweeney dragged her into a driveway before brutally kicking her and stamping on her.

He then sexually assaulted Ms Aleena and left her for dead in an attack that lasted nine minutes and left her with 46 separate injuries resulting in her death after she was rushed to hospital.

McSweeney, who refused to attend his sentencing hearing, was handed a life sentence with a minimum term of 38 years in December at the Old Bailey after admitting Ms Aleena’s murder and sexual assault.

In a ruling on Friday, three judges at the Court of Appeal in London found the sentencing judge had imposed too high an “uplift” to the minimum term, replacing it with a life sentence with a minimum term of 33 years.

The Lady Chief Justice Lady Carr said: “Having correctly found that Ms Aleena must have been rendered unconscious at an early stage in the attack, the judge had lacked a sufficient evidential basis on which to be sure that there had been additional mental or physical suffering such as to justify an increase in the 30-year starting point.”

Boy, 16, admits manslaughter of man who he tripped up in the street in Hanwell, west London

Activists hurl red paint over London building in ‘Free Gaza’ protest

London’s low emission zones have improved air quality, study suggests

McSweeney appeared at his appeal hearing last month by videolink from Long Lartin prison in Worcestershire.

His barrister George Carter-Stephenson KC said it was “accepted that the attack and murder in this case was particularly savage and brutal”.

But he said that although there was a “sexual motive” to the crime the murder was not premeditated.

“The attack was an opportunistic act rather than anything that was planned in advance, though there was clearly a sexual encounter in mind,” he said.

“He planned to look for a sexual encounter, with or without consent.”

Oliver Glasgow KC, representing the Crown Prosecution Service, told the court McSweeney had spent two hours stalking women before focusing on Ms Aleena.

“The sexual assault of Ms Aleena was the culmination of hours of planning and premeditation,” he said in written submissions.

Ms Aleena’s murder led to more calls to end violence against women and girls.

McSweeney was known to police as a serial offender and had 28 previous convictions for 69 offences, including burglary and assault.

Be the first to get Breaking News

Install the Sky News app for free

He was released from prison just nine days before the murder and in that time his licence was revoked after he failed to attend any meetings with probation workers.

A damning report found a catalogue of errors in the Probation Service’s handling of McSweeney, which meant he was not treated as a high-risk offender and was “free” to commit this “most heinous crime”.

Related posts:

Lewis Hamilton joins social media blackout against online abuse ‘Incredibly dangerous’: Young children among migrants picked up by Border Force in Channel Boy, five, found dead in river in South Wales Former MI6 boss warns UK’s terror threat level ‘greater today’ following Afghanistan exit Paramedic dies after ambulance collides with cement truck in Kent Sheffield United players charged over incidents at play-off match against Nottingham Forest Shadow health secretary apologises after saying Corbyn had ‘gone senile’ Tourist jailed for killing five people – including his own son – in Scotland road crash New weather warnings issued amid major travel disruption as rail strikes continue Secret Escapes plots £30m fundraising in bet on post-pandemic travel Sheikh Jassim expected to make a second bid for Manchester United within 10 days Lauren James banned for two games – potentially missing Women’s World Cup semi-final