Man guilty of murdering women found in his freezer

A convicted intercourse offender has been found guilty of murdering two women whose our bodies have been found in his freezer.

The stays of Henriett Szucs and Mihrican Mustafa have been found at Zahid Younis’s flat in Canning City, east London, in April 2019.

Prosecutors at Southwark Crown Courtroom stated Younis preyed on the weak women, subjecting them to “very vital violence”.

Jurors deliberated for over 16 hours earlier than returning majority verdicts.

• How warnings about Heni and Jan’s killer have been missed

Younis will likely be sentenced on the identical court docket later.

The four-week trial heard police made the “grim discovery” when searching for the defendant at his dwelling following a name about his welfare.

He was not in however officers gained entry and seen the lockable freezer, round which flies have been gathering.

‘Grotesque’

Ms Szucs, 32, initially from Hungary, was final seen alive in 2016 and was killed shortly earlier than the defendant bought the freezer in November that yr, the court docket heard.

Younis’s second sufferer, 38-year-old Ms Mustafa, was final heard from in Might 2018.

The character of the crime scene meant a trigger of loss of life couldn’t be established, however the scientific proof confirmed that the women had been subjected to critical violence earlier than their deaths.

Det Ch Insp Simon Harding stated the freezer was compelled open by one of the officers on “an old style police hunch” about what was inside it.

He stated: “He broke open the freezer and found what may solely be seen, on the time, as just one physique.

“It truly took the freezer being taken away and X-rayed for it to be seen there was one other physique beneath that. It was a grotesque discovery for the officers.”

Det Ch Insp Harding described Ms Szucs as somebody who had been in abusive relationships earlier than and was preyed upon by Younis.

She moved in with him – though Younis denied having a long-term relationship together with her – and “now we have proven that she was actually in love with him in her personal means”, the detective stated.

“She wrote him letters that we found. Sadly to him, she didn’t imply something.”

The court docket heard that Younis has a number of earlier convictions for assaulting companions.

A BBC investigation has recognized a collection of points regarding the case:

• In 2002, a teenage lady instructed police that Younis had attacked her with a hammer and crowbar, after falsely imprisoning her. No additional motion was taken.

• In 2007, 26 expenses towards Younis relating to 2 younger teenage ladies have been discontinued after a choose directed {that a} jury ought to clear him of many the offences following proof from one of the victims.

• In 2008, a plea settlement resulted in a number of expenses towards Younis being discontinued, together with rape and sexual assault.

• In 2016, Ms Szucs was positioned in a protected home for victims of trafficking after she was thrown from a block of flats by a person – not Younis – who was on bail for allegedly raping her. The CPS had declined to authorise a rape cost after it was first reported in February 2015. The Met Police misplaced contact together with her as she fell below the management of Younis.

• The Met’s lacking particular person inquiry into Ms Mustafa – which began in 2018 – didn’t study important cellphone proof, which might have proven contact with Younis across the time she vanished. It’s now the topic of an inner Scotland Yard inquiry after her household made a collection of complaints.

Younis, often called “Boxer”, denied homicide however did admit placing the women in the freezer, pleading guilty to 2 counts of stopping the lawful and respectable burial of a physique.

He confirmed no emotion because the verdicts have been learn out whereas members of Ms Mustafa’s massive household, who attended daily of the three-week trial, stated “sure” in the general public gallery.

Her older sister, Mel Mustafa, stated: “Thanks God, thanks.”