A sexual predator who stalked law graduate Zara Aleena and killed her in a “terrifying and ruthless” attack has been jailed for at least 38 years.

Jordan McSweeney was caught on CCTV drunkenly lurching in the street after being ejected from a pub for pestering a female member of staff.

He targeted at least five women before he turned his attention to 35-year-old Ms Aleena, as she walked home from a night out early on Sunday June 26.

McSweeney stalked her along Cranbrook Road in Ilford, east London before grabbing her from behind and dragging her into a driveway.

Prosecutor Oliver Glasgow KC said: “Despite being only yards from a public street and from residential properties, the defendant attacked Zara Aleena with a savagery that is almost impossible to believe.

“He repeatedly kicked and stamped on her head and body, he tore some of her clothes from her body in order that he could sexually assault her, and then he attacked her again, kicking and stamping on her face and neck, and returning several times to continue the brutal violence.

“Finally, once satisfied that she would no longer be able to report him for what he had done, he walked away, taking her mobile telephone with him which he threw over a garden wall, thus ensuring that neither she nor anyone else who might find her could use the phone to call for help.

“He walked back to the caravan where he was living and the following morning, having hidden the bloodstained clothes and shoes he had been wearing during the attack, was seen laughing and joking with his friends; seemingly without any concern for what he had done or for the fate he had forced upon Zara Aleena.”

The attack caught on grainy CCTV lasted nine minutes and resulted in 46 separate injuries.

Afterwards, McSweeney took some of Ms Aleena’s clothes, keys and purse which he threw away with the same “disdain” he had treated his victim, Mr Glasgow said.

Ms Aleena, who was training to be a solicitor, was found with severe head injuries and struggling to breathe.

Emergency services were called at 2.44am but she died in hospital from compression to the neck and blunt force to the head.

Mr Glasgow told the court: “At the time she was attacked, Zara Aleena was only minutes from her front door and she had every right to feel safe on the street, streets where she lived and which she knew well, but once she had become a target for this defendant that right was taken from her in a terrifying and ruthless manner, and, quite simply, she stood no chance of survival.”

Police identified McSweeney from bloody fingerprints at the scene and chilling CCTV footage which was played in court.

Officers traced him to a caravan on a fairground in the nearby Valentines Park where he was arrested the next day.

While in custody, McSweeney was violent towards officers after refusing to answer questions.

The court was told the prolific thief and burglar, drug dealer and bare knuckle fighter who had a history of violence towards ex-partners.

He had been released from prison on licence on June 17 just nine days before the murder.

In that time, his licence had been revoked after he failed to attend any meeting with probation workers.

Last month, McSweeney, 29, of Dagenham, Essex, pleaded guilty to Ms Aleena’s murder and sexual assault.

On Wednesday, he refused to come up from the cells at the Old Bailey to be sentenced saying he did not want to watch footage of what he had done.

In a televised sentencing on Wednesday, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb jailed him in his absence for life with a minimum term of 38 years.

She said: “The defendant had the physical advantages of strength and surprise.

“In everything else, she was better than him.

“She was talented, spirited, intelligent and kind. Spending the evening with her friend she had done nothing wrong, taken no mis-steps, shown no lack of sense.

“She was simply a happy, healthy woman living her life in what most Londoners think of as the best city in the world.”

McSweeney’s decision not to come to court to face justice showed he had “no spine whatsoever”, she added.

Speaking outside court, Ms Aleena’s aunt Farah Naz said: “Today’s sentencing protects the public from a man who cannot and must not live freely in the world.

“His extreme indifference towards Zara’s life and to the law makes him a very dangerous man. We have some retribution but no peace.

“There are questions to be answered still and there are lessons to be learned and changes to be made.

“Zara’s life was senselessly and brutally crushed. Today like every day we live with the horror Zara was forced to face.”

Mayor Sadiq Khan paid tribute to Ms Aleena’s family for their grace and dignity as he vowed to work to end the “epidemic” of violence against women and girls.

He said: “Women do not just deserve to be safe, they have the right to be safe.

“Our city and our society must change and I am determined to work with partners to do everything we can to lead the way.

“My promise to Zara’s loved ones, to women, to all Londoners as mayor: City Hall stands with you and we will not rest until this city is a place where no woman or girl fears for her safety in their home or their street.”

McSweeney has 28 previous convictions for 69 separate offences including burglary, theft of a vehicle, criminal damage, assaulting police officers and assaulting members of the public while on bail.

In mitigation, his lawyer George Carter-Stephenson described McSweeney’s troubled childhood in which domestic violence was “the norm”.

He was taken into care, expelled from school and began drug dealing and “bare knuckle fighting for money”, the court heard.

Mr Carter-Stephenson said: “To a certain extent Mr McSweeney was a damaged person from very early on in his childhood.”

But Mrs Justice Cheema Grubb said: “Nothing he was deprived of in terms of familial love, boundaries, safety or security could begin to justify his actions or attitudes as an independent adult with the ability to reason and opportunities to reform available to him.”