Missed email delayed killer’s prison recall – inquest
By Sonja Jessup, BBC London Home Affairs Correspondent
MET POLICE
Zara Aleena’s murderer was recalled to prison late because a probation officer missed an email sent days before her death, an inquest has heard.
Sexual predator Jordan McSweeney, who had 28 previous convictions, was at large on 26 June, 2022, when he killed the 35-year-old law graduate in Ilford, east London.
He had been released from jail on licence nine days earlier.
Devina Ford told East London Coroner’s Court she had “unfortunately” missed the message on 22 June requesting she sign off paperwork to initiate his recall.
That meant it was not completed until 24 June.
McSweeney was released on 17 June, but did not attend his initial probation appointment.
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The inquest heard his mother said he was passed out drunk.
On 20 June, McSweeney failed to attend a second appointment.
His mother said she had not seen him since his release.
Previously, the inquest heard newly qualified probation officer, Austin Uwaifo, accept he should have classified McSweeney as high risk instead of medium.
This, he said, was an “oversight”.
Ms Ford, Mr Uwaifo’s line manager, accepted she should have supervised his work better and apologised.
“I’m not sure exactly what was going on for me that time,” she said.
She also recognised McSweeney should have been classified as high risk as early as February 2021 rather than medium risk.
Ms Ford told the inquest she had been aware at the time how important her role was in protecting the public and that her work was not up to scratch.
PC Paul Cozins worked with the integrated offender management team, monitoring persistent offenders.
He told the court McSweeney’s case had been discussed at a meeting the day after he missed his second probation appointment.
Rajeev Thacker, representing Ms Aleena’s family, asked PC Cozins if alarm bells had been rung by McSweeney’s missed appointments, allegations he had been drinking, and the lack of information about where he was.
The officer agreed they had.
He did not know whether he had spoken up, he said, as “not everything is documented”.
The inquest heard it was agreed at the meeting that police should visit his mother’s and grandmother’s homes, but that this did not happen.
“It comes down to workload,” PC Cozins said.
The inquest continues.
