Nine Years in Jail for Woman Who Killed Her Mother

Court told that Ark Acton dinner lady had been abusive to Hanaa Bennis

Hanaa Bennis stabbed her mother 30 times in frenzied attack filming the aftermath on her phone. Picture: Met Police

January 22, 2024

A 22-year-old woman from Acton has been jailed for nine years for killing her mother after stabbing her over 30 times.

A trial at the Old Bailey, which concluded this Thursday (18 January) was told how Hanaa Bennis had filmed Aziza Bennis’s body after the attack in a flat in Clariat Court, Boddington Gardens on 15 August 2022.

Evidence was presented of abuse towards the daughter by her 57-year-old woman who worked at Ark Acton Academy as a dinner lady and was described as an alcoholic.

The pair had a volatile relationship prior to the attack exchanging insults by text messages. On the day of the fatal assault neighbours reported hearing shouting and screaming from the flat at around 3pm with Mrs Bennis begging her daughter to stop hurting her. When the police entered the property they found Aziza Bennis in the foetal position on the floor covered in blood. She was pronounced dead at the scene with a knife wound to the right thigh proving to be the blow that killed her.

Haana Bennis, whose address was given as Uxbridge Road Ealing, had denied a charge of murder but admitted to manslaughter by diminished responsibility. She had a history of depression and self-harm which she attributed to mistreatment at the hands of her mother.

In a statement she said, “My mother attacked me with a knife. I sustained multiple injuries on my body from my mother’s actions. I acted in self-defence.”

The prosecution accepted that there was evidence of Aziza Bennis’s alcoholism and violence towards her children and that Hanaa Bennis’s disruptive and rebellious behaviour, which often involved her going missing, was the result of abuse by her mother.

Two medical reports were presented at the trial stating that she was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of childhood trauma. However, Judge Nigel Lickley said that she understood what she was doing when she killed her mother and intended to do so rejecting the mitigation of diminished responsibility.

Boddington Gardens. Picture: Facebook

The family had been living on the estate for over seventeen years being one of the first to move in and Mrs. Bennis, who was originally from Casablanca in Morocco, was well-liked by her neighbours.

At the time of her death the Ark Acton Headmaster Oli Knight said, " She was a long-standing member of staff and will be missed. We will offer support to staff and students and hope to find a fitting way to remember Aziza when we return to school."

In addition to the jail term Hanaa Bennis will have a further five years on extended licence.