Zara Aleena’s killer was caught having sex with a prison worker inside HMP Belmarsh, it has been reported. Jordan McSweeney, 30, murdered law student Ms Aleena, 35, in Ilford, east London on June 26, 2022, while out on licence from prison following an earlier offence of robbery.
He was sentenced to life in prison for the “brutal sexually motivated murder” in December that year and has spent the last 12 months serving his sentence in HMP Belmarsh. It has now come to light that McSweeney was caught having sex with a female worker at the prison, touted as one of the UK’s most secure category A facilities
A source told the MailOnline that the two were caught in the act last year after they sneaked into a locked room inside the prison.
The source revealed that McSweeney and the unnamed prison worker – who is reportedly not a prison officer – gained access to a room at Belmarsh which they locked from the inside.
After they were caught, the worker was suspended and has since been arrested, and officials have launched an internal investigation exploring the incident. A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police confirmed the allegation, stating the worker in question was a 32-year-old woman who was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office.
They said: “On April 6, 2023, the Met received an allegation of inappropriate conduct involving a serving member of staff at HMP Belmarsh.”
“The same day, a 32-year-old woman was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office. She was bailed pending further enquiries until a date in late July. She was later released under investigation. Enquiries are ongoing.”
The Ministry of Justice has previously taken a hard line on inappropriate relations between prisoners and workers, having warned previously that it takes all allegations of staff wrongdoing “extremely seriously”.
The Government department added that it investigates reported prisoner-staff relations “immediately”, irrespective of their gender and would “not hesitate to take action where there is evidence of misconduct”.
A Prison Service spokesperson told the Mail: “It would be inappropriate to comment on a live police investigation.”
McSweeney, then 29, had stalked at least five other women before Ms Aleena, whom he targeted in 2022 before dragging her into a driveway in Ilford, east London, and kicking and stamping on her.
He was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 38 years at the Old Bailey after admitting murder and sexual assault, but he has since had this sentence reduced following an appeal in 2023.
In November, three Court of Appeal judges ruled the initial sentence was too high and an “uplift” to the minimum term and reduced the required serving time to 33 years.
Lady Chief Justice Lady Carr said the judge “correctly” found Ms Aleena was knocked unconscious at an early stage in the attack but said they lacked a “sufficient evidential basis on which to be sure there had been additional mental and physical suffering such as to justify an increase in the 30-year starting point”.
The reduction shocked Ms Aleena’s family, with a statement issued via her aunt, Farah Naz, stating it conveys a “disheartening” message to women that a life sentence “may not truly mean a lifetime behind bars”, adding: “It is, in all honesty, a shallow triumph for him.”
