Man jailed for life for punching deaf woman in neck and leaving her to die in the street
A raver nicknamed Nasty has been jailed for life after punching and throwing a deaf woman out of his car on a night out.
Zahwa Mukhtar, 27, was killed following a party on August 16 last year after climbing into a crowded Mercedes with Duane Owusu, 36.
The stranger ended up killing Ms Mukhtar by punching her and then kicking her out of the vehicle for ‘annoying’ him following an argument.
Owusu, nicknamed Nasty, from Dagenham, was jailed for life at the Old Bailey today, with a minimum term of 16 years and six months.
He was found guilty of punching Ms Mukhtar, who is profoundly deaf, in the neck and then leaving her to die on the street in east London.
The young woman had been out by herself when she ran into Owusu’s group ‘by chance’ outside a Stoke Newington pub near her home, the court heard previously.
Her death was labelled ‘senseless killing of a vulnerable young woman’ during a hearing in February.
An eyewitness said Owusu ‘looked like a monster’ and was ‘full of rage’ after a row broke out inside the overcrowded car.
Prosecutor Henrietta Paget KC said: ‘The occupants of the vehicle had been drinking and taking drugs, Ms Mukhtar included.
‘You will hear evidence that she was behaving erratically within the car, flirting with the boys and picking fights with the girls. Nobody knew her, and it appears that her behaviour was causing increasing annoyance.’
Ms Mukhtar began to film the others with her phone, and Owusu ordered the driver to stop.
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The prosecutor continued: ‘Opening the rear door, he threw out Ms Mukhtar’s phone and then ejected her body from the car, so that she landed on her backside on the pavement.
‘Getting out after her, he aimed two kicks at her face as she sat on the ground. One of the female members of the group got out to try to stop the attack but he swung her aside.
‘Ms Mukhtar by this stage had managed to get to her feet and was pleading with Mr Owusu to stop, but he punched her, hard, to the neck, knocking her to the ground where she lay motionless.’
Her fall was so hard that she fractured her skull and suffered a fatal brain injury, the jurors heard.
Paige Allen, who was a witness, said the young woman pleaded with Owusu to stop before he struck her.
She told the court: ‘He was just rage. He looked like a monster. His behaviour was just wrong. She just fell. Just fell backwards.
‘I went to help her but he screamed at me to get in the car.’
The group left the scene in Chadwell Heath, east London, before they were stopped and searched nearby.
Ms Mukhtar was found unresponsive at about 5.30am, and she was pronounced dead at 6.21am.
Judge Richard Marks KC said Owusu left the woman there ‘thinking only of himself.’
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