Recall report for Zara Aleena killer 'closed too soon'

Zara Aleena was 10 minutes away from home when she was attacked in the early hours

A Metropolitan Police log - instructing officers to recall Zara Aleena's murderer to prison days before he attacked her - was closed prematurely and further checks should have been carried out, the inquest into her death has heard.

Jordan McSweeney, a sexual predator with 28 previous convictions, was still at large on 26 June 2022, when he killed the 35-year-old in Ilford, east London.

He had been released from jail on licence nine days earlier.

Giving evidence at East London Coroner's Court, Sgt Ian Batten told the jury he had not realised his report on the police system had been closed hours after he made it.

'Manhunt'

The inquest had previously been told that prolific offender McSweeney should have been ranked as “high risk” as far back as February 2021.

Sgt Batten said if the categorisation had been made, a "manhunt investigation" would have been launched to find him.

However, based on the information he had seen, Sgt Batten had not believed there was any risk to the wider public.

Jordan McSweeney was jailed for a minimum term of 38 years

The officer said there was a “high volume of work" in the operations room, and it was “not unusual” to have 10 to 15 cases each shift where electronically tagged offenders had breached bail conditions.

The inquest heard that McSweeney had previously suggested he would like to find work at a funfair after leaving prison, but Sgt Batten said he was not aware of this, and so had not checked if there were any in the local area.

He said an address recorded as McSweeney’s grandmother’s did not exist, but that he had directed officers to attend his mother’s address.

Mother's home

The inquest also heard from PC Janet Matthews, who had gone to the mother's address to search for McSweeney in the early hours of 25 June.

Body-worn camera footage showed officers asking his mother if they could enter her home to check he was not there, but his mother refused and said she did not know where he was.

PC Matthews said she did not believe she had any powers to search the address, as she did not have enough evidence that he was there.

McSweeney was recorded on CCTV before he attacked Ms Aleena

The jury also heard a witness statement from Kevin McKenna, a fairground worker, who said McSweeney had been sharing a caravan with him at Valentines Park in Ilford since 21 June.

He said McSweeney had been working at two fairgrounds with him in Ilford and in Wanstead, helping children on the rides.

He said on the night that Ms Aleena was murdered, he had been drinking heavily at a pub with McSweeney, who had been “talking to everyone".

He said later in the evening, a member of bar staff had told him: “I can’t serve you while he is there,” referring to McSweeney, but said he did not know why.

McSweeney’s boss, John Parnham, described picking him up in the car from the fairground in Wanstead the day after Ms Aleena was attacked, and said he had remarked to him that there must have been a bad traffic accident as the roads were closed.

He said McSweeney replied: “No, someone has been murdered.”

Later that afternoon, he said police had come to the fairground and shown him a photo.

“I was sure it was Jordan,” he said. “I went white.”

He told officers that McSweeney was asleep in the caravan, where they arrested him.

The inquest continues.