A man accused of murdering two women whose remains were discovered in a freezer had an “extremely violent” past with young girls and was a registered sex offender, a court has heard. Zahid Younis, 35, is on trial for the murder of Hungarian national Henriett Szucs and Mihrican Mustafa, who were discovered by police in a flat in Canning Town, east London, on 27 April 2019. Prosecutor Duncan Penny QC told Southwark crown court that Younis, of Vandome Close, Canning Town, had a “complex history of offending”. Penny told the jury of the defendant’s previous relationship with a 17-year-old girl in 2001 – when he was the same age – who had given birth to his child. “During their relationship, the defendant became extremely violent and overbearing towards (her),” Penny said. “He would wait outside her house and escort her everywhere. Looking back, [she] can see that he was controlling her.” The court heard Younis had threatened to take their child to Pakistan and that the mother “thought that he would kill her”. Penny also detailed how in 2004 Younis married a 14-year-old girl in an Islamic ceremony, and she became pregnant with his child the following year. He added: “The defendant was very controlling, wanting [her] around him all the time, and refusing to let her go home on occasion. During that period in her childhood he would often hit her, with his hands and whatever objects were lying around, and throughout the period of their relationship, his behaviour towards her was controlling and abusive.” Younis was arrested in 2005 and pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual activity with a child and an offence of common assault. He was sentenced to 30 months in prison and placed on the sex offender register. Penny said Younis began dating another 17-year-old girl in 2007 who had “recently lost her father, and was in a vulnerable emotional state at the time she met the defendant”. The prosecutor told the jury that the defendant began beating her, adding: “The violence began with slaps, which escalated into punches, and then punches and kicks. They would leave large bruises. “He threatened that he would harm her family, and set their house on fire, if she ever told anyone what he was doing.” Penny continued: “He made [her] wear a burka when her mother and sister visited, to cover the bruises she had all over her body.” Younis was arrested and later pleaded guilty to two offences of wounding and one offence of assault occasioning actual bodily harm in July 2008, and sentenced to four years and 11 months in prison. At the opening of the trial on Wednesday, the court heard Szucs and Mustafa, both in their 30s, had been subjected to “very significant violence”, and that they were known to have associated with Younis in the weeks leading up to their disappearances. Younis denies two counts of murder. The trial continues.