ZARA HAD A FEAR OF GETTING CABS
She told neighbour it was safer to walk
AMY SHARPE STREET killing victim Zara Aleena refused to use taxis because she felt it was safer to walk, a friend has revealed.
Louise De’Souza said the aspiring lawyer was scared of getting into them.
Mrs De’Souza, 60, a neighbour who knew Zara, 35, from childhood, said: “Unless someone was sharing or she knew the driver, she wouldn’t get in. I said, ‘Don’t walk late at night’. She said she was safer because the street lights were on.”
Zara’s killing early last Sunday after a night out has reignited concerns over women’s safety after a series of murders. They include the killing of sisters Bibaa Henry, 46, and Nicole Smallman, 27, in June 2020 a few miles from where Zara was attacked in Ilford, East London.
Last night the sisters’ mum Mina Smallman offered to help Zara’s family cope with their grief. She said: “Her mum and grandma
said they would appreciate speaking to me. We are a group of people you’d never want to be part of.”
Mina has blasted a government StreetSafe app launched after Sarah Everard’s killing last year as a “tickbox exercise” in place of police patrols. It has led to 18,000 public reports of unsafe areas nationwide.
But Karen Ingala Smith, who runs the Counting Dead Women blog, said: “We will not see changes in men’s behaviour unless we address things that feed their attitudes to women.” The Home Office said: “StreetSafe is helping us crack down on areas where people feel unsafe.” Jordan McSweeney, 29, of Dagenham, East London, has been charged with Zara’s murder.