Mihrican Mustafa: Murder victim's cousin blasts Met Police

Mihrican Mustafa, 38, known to loved ones as Jan, once worked as a waitress at West Ham’s football ground in Upton Park.

The mother-of-two was missing for almost a year before police stumbled upon her body in the home of a convicted sex offender, who officers were supposed to have been monitoring.

Paedophile Zahid Younis once married a child bride and had a string of convictions for violence against women. He once injured a woman so badly she could not walk for more than six months.

But despite knowing Jan had encountered him shortly before she disappeared, police did not thoroughly investigate, claimed her cousin Ayse Hussein, from Dagenham.

“I think it was race, misogyny and victim-blaming,” Ayse said.

A treasured photograph of Ayse Hussein and her cousin Mihrican 'Jan' Mustafa (Image: Ayse Hussein)

Missing

Jan, of Turkish-Cypriot descent, was “really kind, really loving,” said Ayse.

“After she died, I found lots of diaries she had left. She used to write that she wished she could help other people who were struggling. She always wanted to help people.”

But towards the end of her life, it was Jan who was struggling.

“She was dyslexic,” said Ayse. “She was getting letters about rent arrears and didn’t realise what they were. She got evicted.

“That’s when everything started going downhill. She started mixing with the wrong crowd.”

Jan became addicted to drugs and started staying with friends in Custom House.

In spring 2018, when she stopped returning relatives’ calls, they reported her missing.

Mihrican 'Jan' Mustafa fell into a downward spiral when she lost her home and her job and began using drugs, said Ayse (Image: Ayse Hussein)

Get the latest crime investigations straight into your inbox by signing up to our new FREE weekly newsletter

'Failings'

“They weren’t doing anything to help us find her,” Ayse said of the Met.

“It was so frustrating. We were having to do it all ourselves and it was like a needle in a haystack.”

She believes Jan was devalued because, “she wasn’t important enough. She wasn’t a high-class working woman."

Ayse claimed: “We didn’t get a reward. We asked if we could go on TV and do an appeal. We were told no. How they pick and choose who gets priority is just disgusting.

“Jan was missing for a year and was classed as medium risk that whole year.

“They said she would be back when she was ready. As a family, you know someone’s pattern. You know if it’s something serious. But they just didn’t believe us.”

Ayse Hussein, who now helps other bereaved families, said she was motivated to speak out by Baroness Casey branding the Met Police institutionally racist and sexist (Image: Charles Thomson)

Found

In April 2019, police found Jan’s body by chance.

Younis had scammed a missionary out of more than £1,400 by posing as a homeless cancer patient.

When he then stopped responding to her messages, she became worried and called police.

Officers broke into his flat in Vandome Close, Custom House, and found a switched-off, padlocked chest freezer surrounded by flies.

Inside was not only Jan’s body but that of another woman too – 34-year-old Henriett Szucs, from Ilford.

Younis, a serially convicted abuser of women and girls, scammed a missionary and killed two woman whilst supposedly being monitored by police (Image: Met Police)

Jan’s family learned Younis had been visited as part of the missing person enquiry when phone records showed he and Jan were in contact right before she went missing.

But despite him being a dangerous abuser, police just accepted his word that he knew nothing about Jan’s disappearance.

“They broke in there for his wellbeing, not for hers,” said Ayse. “That is so annoying. They were more worried about him.”

He was convicted of both women’s murders in 2020 and given a minimum jail term of 38 years.

Ayse Hussein and her cousin Jan before things went downhill (Image: Ayse Hussein)

Casey

Ayse spoke out after Baroness Dame Louise Casey branded the Met institutionally racist and misogynistic.

The Met rejected Ayse’s criticisms.

It said that as Jan had a “chaotic and transient lifestyle” and had once gone missing for a week, she was graded as medium risk, but officers still “carried out a great number of enquiries”.

“Mihrican’s lifestyle means that she had involvement with lots of people and at that time Younis was not considered a key figure in her life,” the force said.

“Appropriate measures were taken by the Missing Persons Unit to locate and speak with Younis, with the information that was known and available to them at that time.”

The Met referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) over Jan’s case, but the IOPC let the Met investigate itself.

It found senior officers had not supervised the investigation as thoroughly as they could have done.

“All missing person cases are now subject to senior oversight,” it said.