Jordan McSweeney wins a challenge at the Court of Appeal over the length of his 38-year sentence.
Image source, Met PoliceJordan McSweeney, who stalked and murdered Zara Aleena, has won a Court of Appeal challenge to have his minimum tariff of 38 years reduced.
In a ruling on Friday, three judges found the sentencing judge had imposed too high an “uplift” to McSweeney’s minimum prison term.
They have replaced it with a minimum term of 33 years.
McSweeney admitted murder and sexual assault but refused to attend his sentencing hearing last December.
The sexual predator targeted at least five women before he attacked 35-year-old Ms Aleena as she walked home from a night out in east London on 26 June 2022.
The attack on Cranbrook Road in Ilford lasted nine minutes and resulted in 46 separate injuries to the law graduate.
McSweeney had been released from prison on licence nine days before the murder.
His barrister George Carter-Stephenson KC had argued that the sentencing judge, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb, had wrongly factored in the “aggravating features” in the case.