Met must ‘get the rot out’ after officers shared murder scene photos – mother

A mother has called on Dame Cressida Dick to “get the rot out once and for all” after two Metropolitan Police officers admitted sharing photographs of her murdered daughters’ bodies on WhatsApp.

Pc Deniz Jaffer and Pc Jamie Lewis were assigned to protect the scene overnight after sisters Bibaa Henry, 46, and Nicole Smallman, 27, were found dead in bushes in Fryent Country Park, Wembley, north-west London.

Instead, they breached the cordon to take “inappropriate” and “unauthorised” photographs of the bodies, which were then shared on WhatsApp.

He sent the doctored image to Jaffer, who forwarded it to a female officer at the scene.

Jaffer showed one of the photos to a male officer as they left the park and sent others to three friends on WhatsApp.

Lewis, who used “degrading and sexist” language to describe the victims, also shared crime scene pictures with a WhatsApp group of 40-plus officers called the ‘A Team’.

At a hearing at the Old Bailey on Tuesday, the officers admitted misconduct in a public office.

Jaffer, 47, of Hornchurch, east London, and Lewis, 33, from Colchester, Essex, were arrested as part of a criminal investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) watchdog.

Adjourning sentencing until December, Judge Mark Lucraft QC warned the defendants they faced “lengthy” prison terms.

Speaking outside court, the victims’ mother Mina Smallman said: “You need to drill down and get the rot out once and for all.

“You are not above the law, you are not going to be protected.”

She criticised the Met chief for her “shoddy” response to her officers’ actions, saying: “It’s now time for them to take the can for it.”

Mrs Smallman said that learning of the officers’ behaviour at a meeting with the police watchdog was the “last straw”.

Following the guilty pleas, Dame Cressida issued a further apology to the family.

She said: “What former Pc Jaffer and Pc Lewis chose to do that day was utterly unprofessional, disrespectful and deeply insensitive. I know that is the view of colleagues across the Met who utterly condemn this behaviour.”

IOPC regional director Sal Naseem called for change within the force, saying the officers’ behaviour was not a one-off.

Their actions were “sickening” and they treated the crime scene with “contempt and disrespect”, in turn insulting the victims and their family, he said.

“A culture where some officers do not see anything wrong with sharing deeply offensive messages and where others feel unable or unwilling to challenge has to change, and it has to change now.”

He added that recommendations to “tackle inappropriate behaviours and cultures” at the station where Lewis and Jaffer were based had been implemented.

As the defendants left court, they declined to answer questions but Jaffer nodded when asked if he would apologise to the sisters’ family.

Last week, Satanist Danyal Hussein, 19, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 35 years for murdering Ms Henry and Ms Smallman.

The jury heard that the victims had been celebrating Ms Henry’s birthday when they were stabbed by Hussein.

He then dragged their bodies into bushes and left them with their limbs entwined in a deliberate act to defile them in death.

The sisters were found 36 hours later by Ms Smallman’s boyfriend Adam Stone, 35, after he became concerned when she failed to return home.

As police began searching the park for forensic evidence, the sisters’ bodies were left in the small copse overnight.

But a female colleague saw them walking backwards and forwards to talk to each other.

A while later, she received a WhatsApp message from Jaffer containing four photographs of the bodies, one of which had the face of Lewis superimposed on it.

Neither Jaffer nor Lewis was wearing protective clothing and would have had to move from their post to take the photos.

Following their arrest, samples of their DNA were taken and found not to match any outstanding samples.

Blood and DNA from the bodies and surrounding area led investigators to Hussein.

Despite the weight of evidence against him, Hussein denied being involved in the killings.

His defence team called into question the two officers’ actions as they examined whether the incriminating DNA evidence could have been contaminated.

But prosecutor Oliver Glasgow QC rejected any suggestion that the bodies were touched or interfered with in any way by the officers.

In addition to the criminal convictions, the police watchdog found Lewis and Jaffer had a case to answer for gross misconduct.

In total, 13 officers were investigated for potential breaches of standards of professional behaviour, the IOPC said.

The IOPC has concluded a separate inquiry into how the Met handled calls from relatives and friends of the missing sisters before their bodies were discovered on June 7.

Last week, Mrs Smallman dismissed an apology from the Met after the force’s response to the deaths was found by the watchdog to be below standard.