Trial begins in “callous” murder of young deaf woman in Romford

A “chance” meeting with strangers on a night out led to the “callous attack” and murder of a young deaf woman in Romford, last summer, by a man nicknamed “Nasty”, a court has heard.

Zahwa Mukhtar, 27, was by herself socialising outside a pub in Stoke Newington Road, Hackney, when she first encountered Duane Owusu, 36, and a group he was with in the early hours of Saturday 16 August 2025.

Within a few hours, Zahwa was dead, having suffered a fatal head injury after being punched in the neck and assaulted by Owusu, who had first thrown her out of a parked car.

Her tragic murder, described as a “senseless killing of a vulnerable young woman” by prosecutor Henrietta Paget KC, was captured on CCTV outside Chadwell House care home, in Romford, and shown to jurors at the Old Bailey on Tuesday.

Owusu, of Althorne Way, Dagenham, denies murder and manslaughter.

Zahwa Mukhtar: killed last year

Ms Paget told the court how Zahwa had gotten into a silver Mercedes with Owusu and four others, including two women, who had driven from a “rave” in another area of Hackney.

Ms Paget 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.

The group were making their way towards Dagenham with Zahwa sitting on Owusu’s lap in the overcrowded car.

As they neared Chadwell Heath, she began filming with her mobile phone. The footage was brief, Ms Paget explained, but was a “trigger” for Owusu, who had been “agitated and acting aggressively” earlier that night according to one of the group.

Jurors saw roadside CCTV footage of him sucking nitrous oxide, or “laughing gas” from a balloon before the car journey, and were told that Zahwa had popped one of the occupant’s balloons inside the car.

After telling the driver to stop, Owusu threw out her phone before pushing her from the car. She “landed on her backside on the pavement”.

As Zahwa shuffled backwards, the defendant left the car and aimed a kick towards her face and then a second “savage kick towards her head”. One of the group who tried to intervene, a woman, was swung out of the way, leaving Owusu free to deliver the “blow that killed [Zahwa]”.

Ms Paget said Owusu “punched her hard, to the neck, knocking her to the ground where she lay motionless”. She suffered “a fractured skull and fatal brain injury” having fallen backwards.

Instead of helping her, he allegedly got into the car, shouted at others to do the same, and told the driver to drive off, Ms Paget said.

“There was no stopping him”

When Zahwa Mukhtar was attacked, jurors heard Owusu was “so mad there was no stopping him”:

Ms Mukhtar was scared and pleading with him to stop.

A minute later the car returned to the scene in Chadwell Heath Lane, where Zahwa lay motionless, “with headlights illuminating her”. The car stayed for only a few seconds and nobody left it.

The court heard there was a discussion about Zahwa, and helping her, but nobody did.

She was eventually found unresponsive by a police officer at 5.31am on Saturday morning when two separate passersby alerted police to a woman lying in the road. They thought she was either drunk or had fallen asleep. Despite the efforts of the emergency services Zahwa was pronounced dead at the scene less than an hour later.

Before reaching Zahwa, officers had spent 50 minutes with Owusu and the group in the Mercedes nearby after stopping the car on suspicion of drugs at about 4.40am.

Police found nitrous oxide canisters in the boot of the car, a small amount of cannabis in the defendant’s gilet pocket and a “man bag” with a “small bag of white powder in it”. No arrests were made, but officers told the group to find alternative ways home.

While Owusu and the Mercedes driver waited for a taxi, their conversation was picked up by neighbourhood security systems, the court was told.

The case continues

Ms Paget said:

Far from showing any concern for Ms Mukhtar, [Owusu’s] concern was that their presence in the area had come to the attention of the police.

The pair began to blame one another and Owusu “berates” the driver for not being “militant”, calling him “soft” and a “weak link”. In response, Owusu was told he “can’t control his emotions”.

The defendant was arrested for Zahwa Mukhtar’s murder on 17 August 2025 and answered no comment to questions during his interview.

Aspiring accountant, Zahwa, worked as a financial assistant at the Young Vic theatre in the Waterloo area of London. Ms Paget described her in court as “bright, bubbly, enthusiastic and very eager to learn”.

She was deaf in one ear as a result of contracting meningitis at three years old — so she wore a hearing aid — but “coped well and was adept at lip reading” as well as British sign language.

Zahwa, from Hackney, came from a traditional background, but wanted to live like any other young person in their twenties, the court heard.

“She had tattoos, piercings and enjoyed food and travel, and remained close to her siblings, especially her younger sister,” Ms Paget added.

The Old Bailey trial continues.

Featured image via the Canary