Deaf woman lay dying as killer ‘Nasty’ detained by police nearby, court told

A profoundly deaf young woman was punched in the neck and lay dying in the street as her killer, nicknamed Nasty, was being stopped and searched by police nearby, a court has heard.

Zahwa Mukhtar, 27, was thrown out of a car and fatally attacked by Duane Owusu on a quiet street in east London in the early hours of Saturday August 16 last year, the Old Bailey was told.

Owusu and his group had left in a silver Mercedes which was stopped by police a short distance away, jurors were told.

The occupants were detained for around 50 minutes before officers investigated reports from the public of a woman on the pavement down the road.

Ms Mukhtar was found unresponsive at 5.31am and despite the efforts of police and paramedics at the scene, she was pronounced dead at 6.21am, having suffered a brain injury.

Opening Owusu’s murder trial on Tuesday, prosecutor Henrietta Paget KC said it was a “senseless killing of a vulnerable young woman” who had fallen in with a group of strangers on a night out.

She told jurors: “This was a callous attack. The attitude Mr Owusu displayed towards his victim was one of utter contempt, as his subsequent actions and words make clear.”

Ms Mukhtar was described as a “bright, bubbly, enthusiastic” woman who aspired to become an accountant and worked as a finance assistant at the Young Vic Theatre in Waterloo.

She was profoundly deaf, having lost her hearing after contracting meningitis at the age of three, but coped well and was adept at lip-reading and used British sign language, jurors were told.

Ms Mukhtar, who came from a traditional family background, wanted to live like any other young person in their 20s and enjoyed socialising, food and travel, they heard.

On the evening before the fatal incident, Owusu, 36, had gone to a rave in Hackney with a group of people he knew from Dagenham, jurors were told.

Ms Mukhtar had been out by herself and come across the group “by chance” outside The Pubb in Stoke Newington, north London, near her home, jurors heard.

The victim was said to have been running up and down the road and was given some laughing gas that Owusu’s group had already consumed, the court was told.

When the defendant and his group left, she joined them in the Mercedes, the court was told.

With seven people in the car, Ms Mukhtar sat on the defendant’s lap on the journey back towards Dagenham, Ms Paget said.

She told jurors: “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.”

When Ms Mukhtar began recording a video on her phone and the defendant ordered the driver to stop the car, the court heard.

Ms Paget said: “Opening the rear door, he threw out Ms Mukhtar’s phone and then ejected her bodily 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.”

Jurors were told that Ms Mukhtar fell so hard that she suffered a fractured skull and fatal brain injury.

Rather than helping her, the defendant allegedly shouted at the others to get back in the car, which was then driven away.

Ms Paget told the jury: “And so it was that Ms Mukhtar was left to die.”

In graphic CCTV footage, a voice could be heard shouting: “Get in the car now.”

A minute after leaving, the car returned and a male voice was allegedly heard to say: “Leave her bro. I don’t even care about her, let’s just go.”

A female voice is then allegedly heard shouting: “Someone help her. We can’t leave her like that.”

A few seconds later, the car drove off again at 4.36am, only to be stopped by police soon after, the jury was told.

Officers allegedly found nitrous oxide cannisters in the boot, a small amount of cannabis in Owusu’s pocket and a small bag of white powder in a bag in the footwell.

The group was detained for almost 50 minutes but officers decided not to make any arrests and they were sent on their way on foot.

After dealing with the Mercedes stop, police went to investigate reports by two passers-by of a woman lying on the pavement further up the road and found Ms Mukhtar unresponsive.

Meanwhile, the defendant and the Mercedes driver were caught on audio recording berating each other as they waited for a taxi.

Owusu allegedly called the driver “soft” and a “weak link” for making a U-turn and wanting to return to help Ms Mukhtar.

The driver told Owusu he could not control his emotions – a comment Ms Paget said went to “the heart of this case”.

The defendant was identified on the CCTV footage by his distinctive silver gilet and arrested the next day.

Owusu, from Dagenham, has pleaded not guilty to murder and the alternative charge of manslaughter.

The Old Bailey trial continues.