After Sarah Everard’s murder, a law graduate killed by a stranger as she walked home assured her best friend, “that won’t happen to us.”
Zara Aleena, 35, was attacked on her way back from a night out in the early hours of Sunday and died from severe head injuries.
The 5ft 1in University of Westminster graduate was walking past a shop to her mother’s house in Ilford, north-east London, when she was attacked from behind, dragged into a driveway, and beaten to death.
Last night, detectives questioned a 29-year-old man who was arrested on Monday. Miss Aleena’s distraught best friend drew chilling parallels between Miss Everard, 33, and Sabina Nessa, 28.
Lisa Hodgson, who studied at Westminster Kingsway College with Miss Aleena, said: ‘We spoke a lot about Sarah Everard together, and Sabina Nessa too. Of course we didn’t know those girls but we were both really affected by it – Zara was quite shaken.
‘I even said to Zara, “Can you imagine something like that happening to us?” And she said, “It’s awful, I know. But don’t worry, it won’t happen to us”. Everyone believes that won’t happen to them until it does.’
Miss Everard, a marketing manager, was kidnapped, raped, and murdered in March of last year by Scotland Yard firearms officer Wayne Couzens.
Miss Hodgson said: ‘After what happened to Sarah you would expect to see big changes to prevent it happening again.
‘But what has been done? It has happened again, to my best friend. And I want to kill the man who has done it with my bare hands but it’s too late now, my beautiful, kind and loving friend has gone.
‘These predators out there don’t seem to care – they’re not scared. We should be able to walk home alone at night without being terrified, looking over our shoulders fearful that something like this will happen. Why shouldn’t we feel safe?’
Jebina Nessa, whose sister Sabina was killed in Kidbrooke, south-east London, last September, has joined calls for more action to end male violence against women.
She said: ‘Words cannot describe how I felt reading yet another murder, similar to what happened to my beautiful sister. My heart goes out to her family.’ It was typical for Miss Aleena, who worked at the Royal Courts of Justice while seeking a trainee solicitor role, to walk rather than take a taxi.
Miss Hodgson said. ‘She was fearless. I spoke to her friend about what happened – they said they got in a cab and Zara wanted to walk. That’s Zara, 100 per cent.’
According to witnesses, CCTV footage given to police but not made public shows her attacker approaching from behind, putting his hand over her mouth, and punching her to the ground.
‘How cowardly, to attack a lone woman from behind. Zara was small but she was tough and brave, she would have fought to the last,’ Miss Hodgson stated.
Neighbors rushed out to find Miss Aleena bleeding as the attacker fled. Paramedics performed CPR for two hours and transported her to the hospital around 4.30 a.m., but she was declared dead shortly after.