Murders of Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman

Bibaa Henry
Born	1974 England,United Kingdom
Died	6 June 2020(2020-06-06)(aged 45–46) Fryent Country Park,London,United Kingdom
Cause of death	Stabbing
Body discovered	7 June 2020
Occupation	Social worker
Parent(s)	Mina Smallman Herman Henry

Nicole Smallman
Born	1992 England, United Kingdom
Died	6 June 2020(2020-06-06)(aged 26–27) Fryent Country Park, London, United Kingdom
Cause of death	Stabbing
Body discovered	7 June 2020
Occupation	Freelance photographer
Parent(s)	Mina Smallman Christopher Smallman

Bibaa Henry(born 1974) andNicole Smallman(born 1992) were two sisters who were murdered in London, England in 2020. They were stabbed to death by Danyal Hussein inFryent Country Park,Kingsbury,on 6 June 2020.The reporting and investigation of their killings provoked widespread discussion of women's safety, police misconduct andsystemic racism.The incident also provoked discussion of the ease of online access to violent cultist and political material, which influenced and motivated the killer.

The mother of the two victims,Mina Smallman,called on theMetropolitan PoliceChiefCressida Dickto resign over the way the case was handled.Following this and other controversies, Dick resigned in February 2022.

Murders

Bibaa Henry lived inWembley,north-west London, and was asocial workeratBuckinghamshire Councildescribed by her family as being "a passionate advocate for safeguarding vulnerable children and families".Nicole Smallman lived inHarrow,north-west London, and worked as afreelance photographer.They were the daughters of the VenerableMina Smallman,theChurch of England's first femalearchdeaconfrom ablack and minority ethnicbackground.Their killings occurred whilst the UK was inlockdowndue to theCOVID-19 pandemic.The sisters' family reported them missing on 6 June 2020.

Henry, Smallman, and friends had been celebrating Henry's birthday by hosting a picnic inFryent Country Parkon the evening of 5 June 2020.In the early hours of Saturday 6 June 2020, the sisters were murdered.CCTV footagecaptured the sisters making their way to the birthday picnic, held locally due toCOVID-19 lockdown restrictions in the United Kingdom.After guests had left the celebration, the two sisters remained in the park, as evidenced by photographs from a mobile phone recovered at the scene; in some of the images, Henry and Smallman are seen playing with strings of lights.Family and friends reported the sisters missing on the evening of 6 June and were advised policemen would deploy resources to conduct enquiries into their whereabouts, but they failed to do so. The sisters’ families and friends discovered their bodies on the afternoon of 7 June in Fryent Country Park.

Perpetrator

19-year-old Danyal Hussein ofEltham,in south-east London, had drawn up a handwritten contract, signed in his own blood, which states that he had made a pact with Lucifuge Rofocale, a demon mentioned in theGrand Grimoire,a historic black magic text, to murder six women every six months in return for financial reward including winning a lottery jackpot.

At theOld Bailey,Oliver GlasgowQC said "Why he chose [the sisters] or what it was about them that caught his attention is also unclear. But, once their friends had left, two of them were far more vulnerable: distracted by the fun they were having, eye-catching because of the lights they were playing with, and now on their own."

Hussein suffered a cut to his hand during his attack on the sisters. When he needed treatment for it the next day, he claimed he had been mugged. Investigators believed he would have committed more murders had it not been for the injury, which impeded his ability to hold objects.Around a month after the murders, a DNA sample was linked by police to Hussein's father, who had a past caution. For this reason, the Husseins' home was raided by police.

From October 2017 to May 2018, he was monitored by thePrevent strategywhen at 15, he accessed far-right material on computers atThomas Tallis School.Police searches of his devices after his arrest showed that he was still accessing far-right and Satanist material.

Hussein was a viewer of videos by Utah-basedMatthew Lawrence, also known as E. A. Koetting. Lawrence's videos were subsequently removed from social media.Hussein was active on a Satanic forum led by Lawrence, alleging he was a 'psychic vampire' and asked for advice about demonic pacts. Hussein was active on that forum for two years and last logged in hours before his arrest. Lawrence advised that pacts should be entered to Lucifuge, signed in blood, brought to Lucifuge with only candle light, and organised for wealth; Hussein followed these instructions.In ten days following the murders, Hussein spent £162.88 on lottery tickets and bets but won nothing.

Legal proceedings

Danyal Hussein was arrested andchargedwith two counts ofmurder.He told police he hadAsperger syndromeand memory problems and refused to answer questions.He pleaded not guilty at theOld Baileyon 11 March 2021.The trial began on 9 June 2021 at the Old Bailey.Prosecutor,Oliver GlasgowQC told the jury, "Given the weight of the evidence against him, only someone who actually believes that an agreement with a demon will work could refuse to accept any aspect of the case against him. (...) It is hard to imagine that anyone could do to another human being what this defendant did to Bibaa and Nicole; but to have planned it, to have prepared it and to have performed it with such ruthless selfishness is truly terrifying. He did not care what he had to do to get what he wanted, and these two women were nothing more than a means to a very disturbing end."

Hussein was convicted of both murders on 6 July 2021.In October 2021Mrs Justice Whipplesentenced him to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 35 years. Whipple told Hussein, "You committed these vicious attacks. You did it to kill. You did it for money and a misguided pursuit of power. This was a calculated and deliberate course of conduct, planned and carried out with precision. Bizarre though the pact with the devil may appear to others, this was your belief system, your own commitment to the murder of innocent women."He will become eligible forparoleon 20 July 2055.

Police misconduct

In the month following the incident, two police officers, PC Deniz Jaffer, 48, and PC Jamie Lewis, 33, were charged withmisconductfor sharing "inappropriate" photographsof the crime scene, causing distress to the family and general public.The officers had takenselfiesnext to the sisters' dead bodies. TheIndependent Office for Police Conduct(IOPC) launched an inquiry into the behaviour of the police officers. Images had been shared on aWhatsAppgroup and a further six officers were investigated for failing to either challenge or report this.The IOPC reported that: "The investigation has also uncovered further alleged misconduct breaches of the standards of professional behaviour for a small number of officers which include honesty and integrity, and equality and diversity".The two officers pleaded guilty to misconduct in public office.Lewis was dismissed from the police, while Jaffer had already resigned.

In December 2021, the two officers were each sentenced to two years and nine months in jail. Mina Smallman, mother of the murdered sisters said in a victim impact statement, "It made me think of the lynchings in the Deep South of USA where you would see smiling faces around a hanging dead body. Those police officers felt so safe, so untouchable that they felt they would take photographs with our murdered daughters. Those police officers dehumanised our children."Jaffer and Lewis had undermined trust in the police, an Old Bailey judge said when jailing them.Following investigation of Jaffer's phone, it was found that he had used racist language regarding a separate case involving the assault of South Asian men.In June 2022 three police officers who received the pictures without challenging them or reporting them each received written warnings but were allowed to keep their jobs. Former Met chief superintendent Del Babu said "If you have something as horrific as pictures of dead women taken, the individuals should be reported. It is more appropriate for them not to be in the police service. The fact they remain is worrying. It sends out the wrong message. It will only add to the heartache of the family. It does not reflect the seriousness of what they did."

Mina Smallman has since worked to raise awareness of the misconduct of the policeand failures in the investigation of her daughters' deaths.She said that racism ensured that the coverage of these black women's deaths was different from similar instances of stranger killings of white women.Mina Smallman maintains the police did not care about the missing sisters before the bodies were found because one was "a black woman who lives on a council estate."

Mina Smallman spoke about Hussein after his conviction, saying that she would not spend her life hating him; she voiced concern that he would be further radicalised in prison.

TheIndependent Office for Police Conduct(IOPC) carried out a separate inquiry into how calls from worried relatives and friends were handled by the police.The level of service provided by the police force to the family was found to be "unacceptable".An apology was issued to the family.The IOPC stated that police logs were closed after a family member gave information about the sisters' possible whereabouts, but a communications supervisor recorded the information "inaccurately".

Reactions

Vigils were held to remember the victims.The vigil at Fryent Country Park on 3 August 2021 organised by Reclaim These Streets (the same group who organised the vigil forSarah Everard), was attended by Mayor of LondonSadiq Khan,Dawn Butler,David Lammyand other notable figures.

The family considered legal action over the police misconduct.DameCressida Dickof the Metropolitan Police said: "The Met is not free of discrimination, racism or bias. I have always acknowledged that and do now again"

Barry GardinerMP of the localBrent Northconstituency told theTodayprogramme that the Metropolitan Police "need to have a root and branch reform in the way in which it operates, the way in which it treats people".A local councillor forBrentwho leads the borough's community safety also criticised the Met, telling theBrent & Kilburn Timesthat an apology is "no substitute for action."

Violence against women and girls

In the year following their deaths were mentioned in coverage relating to the murders of other women in London such asSarah EverardandSabina Nessa.While each incident was different, they served to frame a wider picture of the tackling of violence against women in London and in the UK more widely.

In the foreword of the UK government's strategy for tackling violence against women and girlsthe Home SecretaryPriti Patelsaid "these crimes are still far too prevalent and there are too many instances of victims and survivors being let down. The tragic cases of Sarah Everard, Julia James, Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman touched us all. But for every high-profile case, there are sadly many more. And the pandemic has brought new challenges and presented sick perpetrators with new opportunities as more people stayed at home and went online".