Officers admit to photographing murdered sisters in Fryent Park

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

Instead, the two took photographs of the bodies that were shared on WhatsApp.

The Old Bailey heard Jaffer took four photographs and Lewis took two and one of the images sent to a female colleague had Lewis’s face superimposed onto it.

At a hearing today (November 2), the officers admitted committing misconduct in a public office between June 7 and June 23 last year.

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

PC Deniz Jaffer pictured (Photo: PA)

The pair, who were attached to the Met’s North East command unit, were both suspended from duty following their arrests on June 22 last year after the discovery of the photographs.

The sisters’ mother Mina Smallman, who has described the officers as “despicable”, sat in court for the hearing.

Judge Mark Lucraft QC granted the defendants conditional bail as he adjourned sentencing for reports until December.

He told them: “These matters are extremely serious and you should be under no illusions when you return for sentence it is extremely likely you will receive custodial sentences, custodial sentences of some length for your conduct.”

Police at the Fryent Park crime scene (Photo: SWNS)

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

During Hussein’s trial, Mrs Justice Whipple had banned reporting of details about the behaviour of Jaffer and Lewis, who were referred to only as Pc 1 and Pc 2.

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

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

Some 36 hours later, the sisters were found by Ms Smallman’s distraught boyfriend, Adam Stone, 35, after he became concerned when she failed to return home to their pet bearded dragon.

As police began the painstaking process of searching the park for forensic evidence, the sisters’ bodies were left in the small corpse overnight.

The jury was shown pictures taken by Pc Jaffer early on June 8 of the bodies inside the bushy area where they were found.

Throughout the trial, images of the bodies had been blacked out before being shown in court.

Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry at Fryent Country Park before the murder(Photo: PA)

A female colleague at the site with the two officers was then approached by the defendants, who told her that the victims’ bodies were inside a bush close to where one of them had been standing.

A while later, the female officer received a WhatsApp message from Jaffer containing four photographs of the bodies.

Jurors were told that the images were subsequently circulated by both defendants.

The court heard that the bodies would not have been visible from the path next to the bushes so, in order to take the photos, the officers would have had to move from their posts.

In his closing speech, prosecutor Oliver Glasgow QC rejected any suggestion that the bodies were touched or interfered with in any way by the officers.

He told jurors: “The only police officers about who you should have any hesitations are Pcs 1 and 2, whose behaviour in leaving the cordon and in taking and sharing photographs of Bibaa and Nicole was despicable.

“It is no part of the Crown’s case to defend them for what they did: they have been charged and, if convicted, they will never wear a police uniform ever again.

“But their disgusting lack of respect does not mean that you are entitled to conclude that they contaminated the crime scene or that the swabs taken from Bibaa and Nicole’s ankles are in some way compromised.”

Murderer Danyal Hussein pictured during his arrest (Photo: Met Police)

He said the photographs were taken from some distance away and any suggestion that the bodies were touched was “utterly groundless”.

The victims’ mother, Mina Smallman, condemned the officers as “Despicable 1 and Despicable 2″.

She said: “Our family’s grief was further compounded by the cordon officers who will now be known as Despicable 1 and 2 – any inner strength I had reserved had been torn away.”

At an earlier hearing at magistrates’ court, a lawyer for the two officers apologised on their behalf for the “pain that they have caused” and indicated that they would plead guilty to misconduct.

The IOPC also concluded a separate inquiry into how the Met handled calls from worried relatives and friends of missing Ms Smallman and Ms Henry before their bodies were discovered on June 7.

Mrs Smallman has dismissed an apology from the Metropolitan Police after the force’s response to their deaths was found by the watchdog to be below standard.