Raver nicknamed Nasty guilty of killing deaf woman with single punch

A killer nicknamed Nasty has been found guilty of murder after punching a profoundly deaf woman in the neck and leaving her to die in the street.

Duane Owusu, 36, threw Zahwa Mukhtar out of an overcrowded Mercedes car and felled her with a single strike after attending a rave in east London.

On Thursday, a jury at the Old Bailey found him guilty of murdering 27-year-old Ms Mukhtar after deliberating for nearly 12 hours.

Judge Richard Marks KC remanded Owusu into custody to be sentenced next Thursday.

Jurors were not told that Owusu was jailed for eight years in 2010 for being the getaway driver in a botched robbery in which a Matalan shop manager was fatally stabbed.

Ms Mukhtar had never met Owusu before she came across his group in the early hours of August 16 last year and inhaled laughing gas balloons with them in Stoke Newington.

When they decided to return home to Dagenham, she had got into the already overcrowded car too.

On the journey, she had argued with one of Owusu’s female friends, pulled her hair and threatened to stab someone, jurors were told.

Owusu grabbed her phone and threw it out of the car before ejecting the victim and aiming two kicks at her face as she sat on the pavement, the prosecution said.

When she got up, Owusu punched her in the neck, causing her to fall on to the ground, the court was told.

The incident was captured on graphic CCTV footage and witnessed by Owusu’s horrified friends.

Witness Paige Allen described Ms Mukhtar pleading with Owusu to stop before he landed the fatal blow.

She told jurors: “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.”

On leaving the scene in Chadwell Heath, Owusu and his group were stopped and searched by police a short distance away.

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

Ms Mukhtar, who worked as a finance assistant at the Young Vic Theatre in London, was found unresponsive at 5.31am.

Despite the efforts of police and paramedics at the scene, she was pronounced dead at 6.21am, having suffered a fractured skull and brain injury.

Owusu had denied punching Ms Mukhtar and claimed he only pushed her away from the car to “de-escalate” the situation.

Giving evidence, Owusu said: “I did not believe she was hurt severely or badly.”

He told jurors he had been “traumatised” by what happened and never meant to harm her.

He denied murder and the alternative charge of manslaughter.

His trial was halted after Ms Mukhtar’s brother Abas Mukhtar became overcome by anger and lunged at the defendant in the witness box, leaving jurors “extremely shaken up”.

Fining the 28-year-old plumber £1,000 for contempt of court, Judge Marks said: “It was an ugly and sustained attempt at assault.

“It goes without saying, having seen the incident at close quarters I was absolutely appalled by the incident.

“I have never in all my years at the bar seen anything like it.”

There was silence in court from the defendant and the victim’s family as the guilty verdict was delivered.

Detective Chief Inspector Phil Clarke, from Scotland Yard, said his thoughts were with Ms Mukhtar’s family who had lost their daughter in “horrendous circumstances”.

He said: “CCTV footage collected by the investigation team painted a damning picture of Owusu’s guilt.

“The evidence revealed him to be a remorseless killer, who acted with callous disregard towards his victim.”