Deaf woman killed after night out with strangers

A deaf woman was killed in a "callous attack" after a night out with strangers, a court has heard.

Zahwa Mukhtar, 27, was thrown out of a car and attacked by Duane Owusu Romford, east London, during the early hours of 16 August last year, the Old Bailey was told.

Opening the trial, prosecutor Henrietta Paget KC said the case involved a "senseless killing of a vulnerable young woman".

Owusu, nicknamed Nasty, from Dagenham, denies murder and the alternative charge of manslaughter.

"This was a callous attack," Paget told jurors.

"The attitude Mr Owusu displayed towards his victim was one of utter contempt, as his subsequent actions and words make clear."

Mukhtar was described as a "bright, bubbly, enthusiastic" woman who worked as a finance assistant at the Young Vic Theatre in Waterloo.

She had been profoundly deaf since contracting meningitis at the age of three, but coped well by lip reading and using British Sign Language, the court was told.

Owusu, 36, had been at a rave in Hackney with some acquaintances from Dagenham before Mukhtar, who had been out alone, encountered the group "by chance" outside The Pubb in Stoke Newington.

Jurors were told she was given some laughing gas the group had been using and when they left, she got into a Mercedes car with them.

The group had been drinking and taking drugs during the night, including Mukhtar.

Paget said: "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 she began recording a video on her phone, the defendant ordered the driver to stop, the court heard.

Paget said Owusu opened the rear door, threw Mukhtar's phone out and pushed her from the car on Chadwell Heath Lane.

He then kicked and punched her, she said.

Jurors were told she suffered a fractured skull and fatal brain injury.

Rather than helping her, Owusu allegedly shouted at the others to get back in the car.

A male voice was allegedly heard saying: "Leave her bro. I don't even care about her, let's just go."

A female voice then shouted: "Someone help her. We can't leave her like that."

The car drove off again at 04:36 BST before it was stopped by police soon after.

Officers found nitrous oxide canisters in the boot, a small amount of cannabis in Owusu's pocket and a small bag of white powder in the footwell, the court heard.

The group was detained for almost 50 minutes but were not arrested, and officers sent them on their way.

Two passers by then reported a woman lying further up the road and Mukhtar was found unresponsive at 05:31.

She was pronounced dead an hour later, having suffered a brain injury.

The trial continues.

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