‘I forgive my daughters’ killer – but not police officers who took photos’

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The mother of two women who were murdered says she has forgiven their killer, but not two police officers who took photos of their bodies.

Mina Smallman told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme that she does not feel “hatred” towards the man who killed her daughters, Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry, in June 2020.

But she said the Met Police officers who sent photos of their bodies to a WhatsApp group chat had “violated” the victims – and for that reason she has not forgiven them.

“Obviously what they did wasn’t as bad as murdering,” Ms Smallman said.

“But you’re telling me you have violated our girls, further?

“Because of that – them I haven’t forgiven.”

Ms Smallman, 27, and Ms Henry, 46, were stabbed to death by Danyal Hussein in June 2020.

PCs Jamie Lewis and Deniz Jaffer were deployed to guard the crime scene in Wembley, where the two sisters were found. They took pictures of their bodies, describing them as “dead birds” on a group chat, an offence for which they were each jailed for 33 months.

Ms Smallman said that when the two men were released, she attempted suicide, an incident she describes in her book A Better Tomorrow: Life Lessons in Hope and Strength.

“I just thought: ‘I don’t want to be here.’

“I’ve had enough. And yeah – I attempted suicide.”

Ms Smallman, a campaigner for women’s safety, said police needed to take the online misogynistic radicalisation of young men more seriously.

“A lot accelerated during lockdown … [young men became exposed] to dialogues that suggest that if you can’t get a girlfriend it’s because women have become more dominant and men have lost their place in society.”

“This is radicalisation that is happening to our young men, it is feeding those haters to hate even more, and giving them the tools to hurt women in their lives.”

Despite how her daughters were treated by the Met Police officers, she said she still has faith in the police.

“The majority of the police are good people.”

But she added that the Met needed reform, which was why she was “working with” authorities to “ensure that we have the police force that we deserve”.

Earlier this month she called for more black officers to be deployed in London, appearing at the launch of the Alliance for Police Accountability (APA), a group of bodies fighting racism and misogyny in the police.

Commenting on the recent crossbow attack that killed Carol, Hannah and Louise Hunt, the wife and two of the daughters of the BBC’s John Hunt, Ms Smallman said she “grieves all over again”.

“It just takes me back to the day when I was told [my daughters] were dead.

“Now I grieve, for them, for us, and for the family.

“Their life will never be the same again.”

Ms Smallman knows the mother of Sarah Everard, who was raped and murdered by a Met Police officer.

“When I talk to these mums, they are so broken, really broken. And they’re grateful to me, because they know I’m talking about all of us.”

If you have been affected by any of the issues in this story, help and support is available at BBC Action Line.

Additional reporting by Ruth Comerford.