Latest news with #JordanMcSweeney
Telegraph
29 minutes ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Starmer will fail to keep women safe, says murder victim's aunt
Women are not safe in Britain and the Government is unlikely to achieve its goal of halving violence against females, the aunt of Zara Aleena has warned. Speaking on the third anniversary of the murder of the law graduate, Farah Naz said she feared more young women would lose their lives in tragic circumstances because public services, including probation, were broken. Ms Aleena, 35, was sexually assaulted and killed by career criminal Jordan McSweeney as she walked home in Ilford, east London, in June 2022. McSweeney, who had 28 convictions for 69 separate offences, had only been released from jail nine days earlier and was wanted for recall to prison having breached probation following his release. An inquest concluded that failures across multiple agencies had contributed to the death of Ms Aleena, with a coroner telling the Metropolitan Police and the Probation Service to improve their services or risk future deaths. But Ms Naz said while some progress had been made, the statistics on violence against women and girls had barely improved. She said: 'I think we have to tell women that they are not safe. I think we should be making blunt, clear messages to women saying we do have this undercurrent of misogyny. 'We do have a huge amount of women who are stalked, followed, assaulted, murdered in their own homes. 'Between two and three women a week are murdered in the UK. A recent survey found that 40 per cent of women reported being harassed or stalked and a third of women feel unsafe on the streets. 'The reality is you are not safe, we are working on it but I think we have to be honest and if we have a Probation Service that requires the precision of an aeronautical engineer and it is on its knees and everyone knows that it is on its knees then we need to admit that there are going to be people who are falling through holes.' Ms Faz said the Probation Service had been 'absolutely broken' over the last 20 years and now struggled to recruit and retain high-quality staff. She said the recent settlements in the spending review raised questions about whether the Government's manifesto pledge to halve violence against women and girls in a decade would be achievable. Ms Faz explained: 'I think everyone raised their eyebrows when we heard the commitment. It is the right thing to want but is it a promise you can keep? 'We do need our politicians to be visionaries and inspire us. But there is a danger they have got caught up in their own rhetoric by making such a bold claim and being held to that. And the Treasury is not making the funds available. 'Probation is not a service that operates in isolation, it is dependent on good social housing, it is dependent on an effective mental health system, it is dependent on youth services, an effective education system, it's dependent on a rehabilitation of offenders programme working effectively and it's dependent on prisons working. 'We know that all of those services are stretched. We have such short-term focus.' She added: 'I think the spirit is there, the intention is there but [I don't know] whether there is any money there.' But Ms Faz said as well as requiring investment, tackling violence against women and girls required a cultural shift in society because misogyny was still rife. She said: 'Last week we had the Government announce it was going to ban strangulation in pornography. 'It just beggars belief that it happens in the first place; it says everything really that the Government needs to take action to prevent this sort of thing. It speaks to the levels of misogyny in society. 'Just look at the number of young men who follow Andrew Tate. There are so many alarm signals. How do we shift a culture? These are really big questions.' She said members of the public also had to show more courage to call out misogyny in society, describing how it would be a fitting tribute to her niece. 'Zara was courageous, not just in ambition, but in action. She stood up when others stayed silent. And she was just on the cusp of everything she'd worked for when her life was stolen by preventable systemic failure. 'We as the public need to do more. Justice must be a civic duty, not just a political promise. 'One of the areas I am most interested in is how we move from being bystanders to upstanders. 'I know with the increase in knife crime in Britain people are afraid to step in but there are ways we can step in safely. Just asking if someone is okay. 'Zara was an upstander; she comes from humble beginnings but she was always interested in putting things right and trying to make things fair. 'She would point out what wasn't fair and she would want to fix it. She had a tiny frame but she was courageous enough to stand up to whatever she thought was wrong and unfair and unjust.' A vigil to remember Zara Aleena will be held on Sunday June 29 at 1.30pm at Valentines Park, Ilford.
Yahoo
12 hours ago
- Yahoo
Most shocking court cases in 2025 including puppy thief and paedo Bromley teacher
At the halfway point of 2025 we're looking back at six of the most shocking court cases the News Shopper has covered this year. They include a paedophile Bromley teacher, a prison guard who had a relationship with an evil murderer and a puppy thief. Prison workshop officer Hayley Jones (right) admitted having an inappropriate relationship with killer Jordan McSweeney (left) (Image: Met Police/PA) A HMP Belmarsh prison officer accused of having sex with evil murderer Jordan McSweeney for 10 months was jailed. Hayley Jones, 34, was a prison workshop officer at the high security prison in Thamesmead when CCTV footage caught her kissing, touching and playing with McSweeney – who was serving a life sentence for the brutal sexual assault and murder of 35-year-old Zara Aleena in Ilford. Footage also showed the pair leaving rooms which had no CCTV whilst adjusting their clothes. In a letter which was intercepted by guards, McSweeney told another prisoner that he had been 'f***ing the fat thing from the workshop' for 10 months. He also claimed she had been providing him with contraband such as a phone, 'man was living good' McSweeney wrote. Jones admitted kissing and touching took place between her and McSweeney but denies having sex with him or providing him with contraband. She was jailed for nine months. Read the full story here. Paedophile drama teacher Shaun Baker (Image: Met Police) A Bromley drama teacher who raped and sexually abused a pupil from the age of 12 was jailed. Shaun Baker was head of drama at Ravens Wood School in Keston when he groomed a student, made him engage in sexual activity, and raped him multiple times. Baker, now 50, committed the offences in the 2000s but he continued to teach until his arrest in 2021. A jury found Baker guilty of 14 offences including three rapes following a two-week trial at Croydon Crown Court. He was sentenced to 17 years in prison. Read the full story here. British bulldog puppy Spot was stolen from his owner by Francis Zeta (Image: Met Police/Newsquest) A man who stole a puppy in Orpington while threatening the owner 'stop me and I'll do you' finally admitted the crime five years on. On March 3, 2020, a man in his 30s was walking his weeks-old British bulldog puppy Spot when he noticed two men watching him from a white Mercedes. The dog walker ran away when the men got out of the car, one of them wielding something shiny which looked like a knife, but the men caught up and threatened him before driving off with Spot. Spot was later found wandering a street in Harlow, Essex, on his own and was returned to his owner relatively unharmed, albeit traumatised. Francis Zeta, 38, of Muir Road in Hackney, was arrested two later after being identified as the owner of the Mercedes, but he told police a man who looked just like him had taken his car and committed this dognapping. But in April, Zeta finally pleaded guilty to the robbery - the second man has never been identified. Zeta avoided prison due to his ill health. Read the full story. Shammah Nicholas (pictured) armed himself with two kitchen knives before carrying out a frenzied attack on shopkeepers at Burnt Ash Food and Wine Two Bromley shopkeepers were stabbed in a frenzied attack by a man angered that he was being watched to make sure he didn't steal. Shammah Nicholas' behaviour was described as 'depraved' by his own barrister. The court heard that 22-year-old Nicholas entered Burnt Ash Food and Wine with his sister at around 3.30pm on September 11, 2023. He took exception to that fact that two shopkeepers – men aged 49 and 55 – were observing them to ensure they didn't steal. After a violent confrontation instigated by Nicholas, he left the shop then returned minutes later armed with two large knives. CCTV played in court showed a shirtless Nicholas re-entering the shop just minutes after he left. He chased the shopkeepers around the off-licence in a frenzy, stabbing each of them multiple times before leaving. One shopkeeper was stabbed in the shoulder and still had the knife lodged in him when police arrived. The other was stabbed once in the arm and multiple times in the abdomen area - he said he thought he was going to die as blood was pouring out of him. 'I've lived in England for nearly 40 years and never experienced anything like this,' he said. Read the full story here. Carol Cue, 75, stole £21,000 of jewellery from one of her closest friends, including a ring which had belonged to her friend's dead brother (Image: Met Police) An Eltham pensioner stole £21,000 worth of precious jewellery from one of her closest friends and pawned it to fund a holiday. Elaine Peat, from Welling, had been friends with Carol Cue for over 50 years and said she treated her 'like a sister'. Elaine said she felt 'numb' when she discovered that Cue had been stealing priceless keepsakes from her jewellery box including a ring which had belonged to her dead brother. Cue then revealed she had pawned many of the items and had spent the money whilst staying at Elaine's holiday home in France. Cue, 75, pleaded guilty to theft and narrowly avoided being sent to prison by a judge who described her actions as 'mean and despicable'. Read the full story here. Fatih Hassan (Image: Met Police) A thug was jailed for repeatedly stabbing a dad in front of his eight-month-old baby at the Chislehurst War Memorial. Mekseb Eyobraya had arranged to meet his ex-partner at the memorial at 3pm on June 8 last year to pick up the baby. But her new man, Fatih Hassan, also turned up carrying a knife which he used to stab Mekseb in the thigh and back. There was no animosity between any of the parties prior to this meeting and lawyers were at a loss to explain what provoked Hassan to carry out the near-fatal attack. Hassan, 31, of Avalon Road in Orpington, was jailed for 14 years.
