'Law needed to ensure killers face sentencing'

The aunt of murdered law graduate Zara Aleena has called for the justice system to "ensure murderers face their sentencing".

On Monday, Kyle Clifford refused to attend his sentencing hearing for the murders of Louise, Hannah and Carol Hunt.

He became the latest killer to not attend his sentencing as Cambridge Crown Court was told he had refused to leave his cell at HMP Belmarsh.

Farah Naz, the aunt of Ms Aleena, whose killer Jordan McSweeney also failed to appear in court to hear his life sentence handed down, said "legal levers" should be used to ensure perpetrators "face that moment of reckoning" in court.

Clifford was handed whole life orders for the murders of Louise, 25, Hannah, 28, and their mother Carol, 61, the wife of BBC racing commentator John Hunt; the false imprisonment and rape of Louise, and possession of a crossbow and knife.

Ms Naz told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that when McSweeney refused to appear in court it had felt "like one more injustice".

"You know, he took Zara's life, and he took away our chance to see him face what he'd done, and it appeared as if he was above, just as untouchable, and we were left with an empty dock where accountability should have been," she said.

"The process felt incomplete."

The government previously announced plans to empower judges to compel criminals to appear in the dock when they are sentenced.

The change in the law is expected to be made in the Victims, Courts and Public Protection Bill, which will be laid in Parliament in the next few months.

The judge in Clifford's case, Mr Justice Joel Bennathan, previously told the court he had considered forcing the killer into a room with a video-link at Belmarsh, but became concerned that he would disrupt proceedings.

Ms Naz told the BBC: "The courtroom needs to remain a dignified process.

"We need it not to be dragging people in, not to give a killer a chance to have their last say.

"But we can use legal levers to ensure the murderer faces their sentencing and faces that moment of reckoning.

"It shouldn't be a choice, but neither should it be forced."

Ms Aleena, 35, was sexually assaulted and murdered as she walked home from a night out in Ilford in east London in 2022.

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