‘I forgive killer but not police who took photos of my girls’
THE GRIEVING mother of two murdered sisters says she can never forgive the police officers who took pictures of the bodies and shared them in awhatsapp group chat.
But Mina Smallman said she had forgiven Danyal Hussein, the man who stabbed daughters Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry to death in a London park in June 2020, and does not feel “hatred” towards him.
However, she said the Met Police officers who sent photos of their bodies, including some with selfies, had “violated” the victims, meaning she could never let it go.
She has also told in a new book how she tried to take her own life when she learned that the two officers had been released from jail.
She said: “I just thought, ‘I don’t want to be here. I’ve had enough’. And yeah – I attempted suicide.”
The former Church of England archdeacon told how she let out a howl when she was told her daughters had been killed.
“All I remember is letting go a howl and I recognise it as the primal scream... then I snapped into ‘oh my goodness, [her husband] Chris is on his way and he doesn’t know yet’. He was minutes away from the park and to have to give him that news, it was horrible,” she said.
“I still think of what their last moments must have been. Nikki must have been absolutely terrified as he was lurking in the shadows with this grotesque mask – it must have been like a horror movie.
“But I was asked in an interview if I had forgiven him. I did a soul search and I had and there was nothing there, that is the gift of grace.
“Chris did a double take. He has not forgiven him, he feels total rage.”
Ms Smallman, 27, and Ms Henry,
46, were killed by Hussein after he pledged to sacrifice six women every six months in a “pact with a demon” he signed with his own blood.
They had been celebrating Ms Henry’s birthday in Fryent Country Park in Wembley, north-west London, when the attack happened.
PCS Jamie Lewis and Deniz Jaffer were sent to guard the crime scene where the two sisters were found.
The pair took pictures of the women’s bodies, describing them as “dead birds” on a group chat.
Lewis took selfies of himself in some of the images. They were both jailed for 33 months after being convicted of misconduct in public office. Speaking on the BBC Today programme yesterday, Ms Smallman said: “Obviously, what they did wasn’t as bad as murdering.
“But in that moment you’re telling me you have violated our girls further by doing this?
“Because of that I haven’t forgiven them.”
Ms Smallman has gone on to become a campaigner for women’s rights and safety and to rid police forces of misogynistic attitudes. She has become friends with the mother of Sarah Everard, who was murdered by serving Met Police officer Wayne Couzens in March 2021.
Earlier this month she called for more black officers to be deployed in London, appearing at the launch of the Alliance for Police Accountability, a group of organisations fighting racism and misogyny in the police.
She wants police to focus on the online misogynistic radicalisation of young men. Despite how her daughters were treated by the Met officers, she said: “The majority of the police are good people.”
Her book,a Bettertomorrow: Life Lessons in Hope and Strength, is available on Amazon from Thursday.