Zara Aleena family ‘tortured’ by thought death was preventable, inquest told

Zara Aleena worked to help resettle refugees in the UK and had been offered a job as a legal assistant at the Royal Courts of Justice, her aunt told the inquest. Photograph: Metropolitan police/PA

The family of Zara Aleena, who was sexually assaulted and murdered in east London while walking home after a night out, has been “tortured” by thoughts her death was preventable – and that a “crumbling justice system” contributed to it.

As a jury-led inquest into the death of the 35-year-old law graduate opened at Walthamstow coroner’s court on Monday, her aunt Farah Naz read a statement saying: “Since her death we have been campaigning so that our daughters, sisters, friends can be safe and protected as Zara never was. This is Zara’s legacy.”