Overview
- Duane Owusu, sentenced Tuesday at the Old Bailey, received life with a minimum of 16 years and six months for murdering 27-year-old Zahwa Mukhtar.
- After meeting a group following a rave, he threw Ms Mukhtar from an overcrowded car in Chadwell Heath, kicked at her, then punched her in the neck, causing a fall that fractured her skull and proved fatal.
- CCTV of the attack and eyewitness testimony, including from a passenger who said he looked 'like a monster,' formed the core of the evidence that secured his conviction.
- Police stopped the same car minutes after the assault and later found Ms Mukhtar unresponsive at 5:31am, with paramedics pronouncing her dead at 6:21am despite efforts to save her.
- Her family remembered her as a determined and kind young woman who was profoundly deaf since age three and worked at the Young Vic Theatre.