A registered sex offender who murdered a drug addict and hid her body in a freezer had asked a WhatsApp group how to “get rid” of a woman.
Zahid Younis, 35, was jailed for life in London on Thursday, 3 September, and was told he must serve at least 38 years in prison.
Younis had denied murdering Henriett Szucs, a 34-year-old Hungarian national, and Mihrican Mustafa, 38, whose bodies were found in a freezer at his flat in Canning Town, east London in April last year.
Prosecutor Duncan Penny QC told the jury at his trial that Younis was a member of a motivation group on WhatsApp and in May 2018 he posted a message which was, in hindsight, deeply disturbing.
Mr Penny said: “The defendant sent a message in that group. A girl was in his flat giving him a hard time and he wanted to get rid of her.”
He said most of the WhatsApp users told him to just call 999 but one member of the group teased him about the woman.
“It was a good old-fashioned police hunch that made them force open the freezer, the intuition that something just wasn’t right."
— Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) September 3, 2020
Following a complex case, a man has been been found guilty of murdering two women before hiding their bodies in a chest freezer in his home.
👇
When Younis was arrested it emerged that the message was sent on the same day Ms Mustafa, who was also known as Mary Jane, was reported missing.
The trial heard that Younis bought the freezer in 2016, on the same day that Ms Szucs was last seen alive.
Younis, who was known by the streetname Boxer, had a history of violent and controlling behaviour towards women stretching back to 2001.
The trial also has heard that Younis, whose family are from Pakistan, had once “married” a 14-year-old girl in a ceremony at a London mosque.
The jury heard Younis had been convicted in 2007 of unlawful sexual activity with a child in relation to the girl, who he “married” at an east London mosque in 2004. She became pregnant the following year.
Younis was sentenced to 30 months in jail for the offence but served only half of that time.
When he came out of prison he began a relationship with a 17-year-old who he regularly beat up, Mr Penny said.
DCI Simon Harding believes Zahid Younis, who was jailed for murdering two women whose bodies were found in a freezer in his flat, should "never ever be released from prison." Read more https://t.co/sxXiDCbcYS pic.twitter.com/CqtPpcqvLg
— LBC (@LBC) September 3, 2020
Jurors the girl was made to "wear a burka when her mother and sister visited, to cover the bruises she had all over her body."
Detective Chief Inspector Simon Harding said the women’s bodies were only found because an officer had acted on an “old-fashioned police hunch” and decided to open it after he noticed flies buzzing around it.
It later emerged that the two bodies had started to decompose when the freezer had been switched off when Younis stopped paying for electricity.
Both victims were "vulnerable women" who were living "chaotic lifestyles" and moved in with Younis after periods of homelessness and drug addiction.
Ms Szucs' mother Maria was unable to attend the trial because of the coronavirus pandemic but a statement put out on her behalf said: "The inner turmoil she suffers is as you would expect for a mother mourning the death of her child and to make matters worse, she hasn’t been able to see her or lay her to rest."
