Duane Owusu: ‘Monster’ guilty of murdering deaf woman Zahwa Mukhtar in brutal London attack
A man has been found guilty of murder after punching a profoundly deaf woman in the neck and leaving her for dead on a London street.
Duane Owusu, 36, threw Zahwa Mukhtar, 27, from an overcrowded car after attending a party, knocking her to the ground with a single blow.
On Thursday, a jury at the Old Bailey found Owusu guilty of murdering Ms Headman.
Judge Richard Marks KC remanded him in custody to be sentenced next Thursday.
Jurors were not told that Owusu was sentenced to eight years in prison for being the getaway driver in a botched robbery in 2010 in which a Matalan store manager was fatally stabbed.
Ms Mukhtar had never met Owusu before encountering his group in Stoke Newington in the early hours of August 16, 2025.
He inhaled the laughing gas balloons with them and got into the already overcrowded car when they decided to return home to Dagenham.
Jurors were told that during the journey, Owusu argued with one of his female friends, pulled her hair and threatened to stab someone.
Prosecution said Owusu then took Ms Mukhtar’s phone and threw it out of the car before kicking the victim twice in the face as he sat on the pavement.
When he stood up, Owusu punched him in the neck, causing him to fall to the ground, the court heard.
The incident was recorded on graphic CCTV and was also seen by Owusu’s horrified friends.
Witness Paige Allen said Ms Mukhtar begged Owusu to stop before delivering the fatal blow.
He told jurors: “He was just angry. He looked like a monster. His behavior was completely wrong. He just fell. He just fell backwards.”
“I went to help him but he yelled at me to get in the car.”
As Owusu and his group were leaving the scene in Chadwell Heath, they were stopped and searched by police a short distance away.
They were detained for about 50 minutes before officers investigated reports from the public about a woman on the sidewalk down the road.
Muhtar, who worked as a finance assistant at the Young Vic Theater in London, was found unresponsive at 5.31am.
Despite all the interventions of the police and medical teams at the scene, it was announced that he died at 6.21 in the morning due to skull fracture and brain damage.
Owusu denied punching Ms Mukhtar and claimed she merely pushed him away from the car to “de-escalate” the situation.
Giving evidence, Owusu said: “I did not believe he was seriously or badly injured.”
He told jurors he was “traumatized” by what happened and never meant to hurt her.
He denied murder and the alternative charge of manslaughter.
The trial was stopped after Ms. Muhtar’s brother, Abas Muhtar, lost his temper and attacked the defendant in the witness box, leaving the jurors “extremely shaken”.
Fining the 28-year-old plumber £1,000 for contempt of court, Judge Marks said: “This was an outrageous and sustained attempt to attack.
“Needless to say I was absolutely horrified by the incident as I saw it up close.
“In all my years in the bar, I’ve never seen anything like this.”
The defendant and the victim’s family remained silent in court while the guilty verdict was announced.
Detective Chief Inspector Phil Clarke, of Scotland Yard, said his thoughts were with Ms Mukhtar’s family, who lost their daughter in “appalling circumstances”.
He said: “The CCTV footage collected by the investigation team painted a damning picture of Owusu’s guilt.
“The evidence revealed him to be a ruthless killer who treated his victim with callous disregard.”
