Man jailed for murder of deaf woman on night out

A man has been jailed for a minimum of 16 years and six months for fatally punching a deaf woman and abandoning her to die in east London.

A jury at the Old Bailey found Duane Owusu, of Althorne Way in Dagenham, guilty of murdering 27-year-old Zahwa Mukhtar.

Owusu, 36, attacked Mukhtar after forcing her out of an overcrowded Mercedes in Romford. Mukhtar had never met Owusu or his group before joining them during a night out in the early hours of 16 August 2025.

Roy Pershad for the Crown Prosecution Service said: "This was a senseless murder of a young woman who should have been able to enjoy a night out without fear for her life."

The court heard that Owusu and a group of friends left a rave in Hackney at about 02:00 BST and were driving to Stoke Newington after being told about another event.

When it failed to materialise, they wandered the streets where they met Mukhtar for the first time.

Jurors were told how both she and the group had been drinking and taking drugs.

The group decided to return to an address in Dagenham, along with Mukhtar who had got into the car with them.

Judge Richard Marks KC told the court that she appeared "flirtatious" and "erratic and quite wild" on the journey, during which she sat on Owusu's knee.

Her behaviour caused tension, particularly with two women in the car.

An argument escalated into a physical confrontation after the car stopped near a garage and spilled out into the road.

The situation briefly calmed and the group got back into the car, but the dispute reignited when Mukhtar started filming on her phone, the court heard.

Owusu told the driver to pull over, deciding Mukhtar should be forced out. He grabbed her phone and threw it into the road and, when the car stopped, opened the door and pushed her out.

He then kicked towards her as she lay on the floor on Chadwell Heath Lane.

Car passenger Paige Allen, described Owusu as "Just lost. There was no controlling him" and "looking like a monster" as he hit her.

Another passenger in the car stepped between them in an attempt to protect Mukhtar, but the court heard Owusu pushed her aside and struck Mukhtar with a forceful blow to the neck.

This caused her to fall backwards and hit her head.

Mukhtar was pronounced dead at the scene 06:21 BST, having suffered a fractured skull and brain injury.

Judge Marks added: "It was absolutely clear the only person about whom you were in any way concerned at the time was yourself.

"I accept that you did not know that she was gravely injured nor indeed that the injuries were so severe as to be unrecoverable but the point is that you couldn't have cared less."

Jurors were not told during the trial that Owusu had also previously been jailed for eight years in 2010 after acting as the getaway driver in a robbery in which a Matalan shop manager was fatally stabbed. He was released in 2013.

At the time of Mukhtar's death, he was on bail over a separate allegation of supplying Class A drugs.

Jamaluddin Mukhtar described his sister as "a remarkable young woman whose life was shaped by both hardship and extraordinary perseverance" in a statement to the court.

He said his sister became deaf at the age of three after contracting meningitis but never allowed her disability to "hold her back".

"Losing her has left an immeasurable void in our hearts. A beautiful determined and loving soul whose absence will be deeply felt forever," he added.

Listen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hello.bbclondon@bbc.co.uk