A killer nicknamed “Nasty” has been jailed for life for fatally punching a deaf young woman in the neck and leaving her to die in the street.
Duane Owusu, 36, was jailed at the Old Bailey with a minimum term of 16 years and six months.
He had been found guilty of the murder of Zahwa Mukhtar, 27, earlier this month following a trial at the same court.
He threw her out of an overcrowded car in the early hours of 16 August 2025 and felled her with a single strike after attending a rave.
Then, rather than summoning help, he drove off.
The incident was captured on CCTV and witnessed by Owusu’s horrified friends.
During the trial, 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.”
At trial, Owusu 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.”
On Tuesday, Judge Richard Marks KC handed Owusu a life sentence with a minimum term of 16 years and six months in jail.
In a televised sentencing, Judge Marks told him he had struck Ms Mukhtar with a “forceful blow for which there was absolutely no justification”.
Despite pleas by his friends to get her help, the defendant had said “no one cares about her” and insisted they leave.
Judge Marks said: “I accept you did not know that she was gravely injured, nor indeed the injuries were so severe they were unrecoverable, but the point is you could not have cared less.
“Whatever her condition you were content to leave her there, flat out on her back on her own at 4.30am, clearly under the influence of drink and drugs, and for all you knew, miles from home and no means of getting there.
“More callous and selfish behaviour it is difficult to imagine.”
In a statement read to the court, the victim’s brother, Jamaluddin Mukhtar, said: “Zahwa Mukhtar was a daughter, granddaughter, sister and niece, a remarkable young woman whose life was shaped by both hardship and extraordinary perseverance.”
He said his sister became deaf at the age of three after contracting meningitis but never allowed her disability to “hold her back”.
She was known for her “constant smile and infectious laughter” and had always encouraged others to believe in themselves, he said.
He added: “Her warmth, kindness and belief in the potential of others were qualities that left a lasting impression on all who knew her.
“Losing her has left an immeasurable void in our hearts. A beautiful determined and loving soul whose absence will be deeply felt forever.”
In mitigation, Michael Borrelli KC said Owusu was “deeply sorry” for the hurt Ms Mukhtar’s family must feel.
Jurors in his trial were not told that Owusu had been jailed for eight years in 2010 for being the getaway driver in a botched robbery in which a Matalan shop manager was fatally stabbed.
Having been convicted of conspiracy to rob, convicted drug dealer Owusu was released in 2013, but was on bail relating to a fresh allegation of supplying class A drugs at the time of Ms Mukhtar’s death.
