Watch on YouTube. Listen on Apple or Spotify.
In June 2020, Bibaa Henry decided to host her 46th birthday in a park that overlooked London. Since the world was in the midst of the pandemic, she followed social distancing guidelines by having her gathering outside. As night wore on & her guests began filtering home, Bibaa was left in the park with her much younger sister, Nicole Smallman, to dance & have fun. They were so thankful to be connecting again after not seeing one another for two long months due to the lockdown. But little did they know that a man was lurking in the shadows, waiting to strike.
The pain of losing Bibaa & Nicole was only further compounded by what happened after they vanished & were eventually found murdered. From the beginning, concerns of worried family & friends were ignored which allowed their bodies to remain undiscovered in the park through a night of torrential rain that no doubt washed away vital forensic evidence. Because of the lack of action on the part of the police, Nicole’s boyfriend of six years had been the one to find Bibaa & Nicole’s remains, images that will forever haunt his memories.
Even more shocking & disgusting were the actions of the two officers assigned to protect the crime scene overnight.
Bibaa Henry turned 46 on Friday, June 5, 2020 in the midst of the global pandemic. The social worker, who was no longer allowed to make home visits, felt like she needed some long overdue time to reconnect with her family & close friends. As her birthday approached, she sent out text messages, arranging a sunset picnic in Fryent Country Park that overlooked the London skyline.
She & her 27-year-old half-sister, Nicole Smallman, hadn’t seen each other in two months so they excitedly met up beforehand, buying supplies they needed to make their picnic in the park as cozy as possible. CCTV footage depicted the women picking up pillows, blankets & snacks before they drove out to the park in Bibaa’s purple Audi for their intimate gathering on a hill at 7:30 pm.
CCTV footage from the park showed them carrying a bulging blue bag ahead of the other guests’ arrival. They laid out their blankets & pillows, strung fairy lights & planned to munch on snacks as they listened to music, danced, enjoyed each other’s company & watched the sunset together.
According to Nina Esmat, Bibaa’s best friend since age 16, the evening had been absolutely gorgeous. Bibaa set her camera up on a tripod to preserve memories while they made the most of their time together during the strange COVID lockdown.
Bibaa’s daughter Monet, who was five months pregnant, was also there for the celebration. Bibaa couldn’t wait to meet her grandson & she’d been sending her daughter all sorts of baby clothes & supplies in the months leading up to the party. Since Monet was only three months older than her Aunt Nicole, they had more of a sibling relationship.
Bibaa & Nicole’s mom, Mina Smallman, had her first two daughters, Bibaa & Monique, with her first husband, Herman Henry. Herman was the ABA featherweight champion in 1982, who went on to develop his own contracting company while Mina had given up office work to become a teacher & later joined the priesthood, becoming the Church of England’s first Black female archdeacon.
When Bibaa was born on June 5, 1974, Mina had been only 17-years-old & then Monique followed one year & four months later.
According to Mina, Bibaa may have been only five feet tall, but she was a girl & a half with the heart of a lion. She lived in Brent in northwest London & was an exceptional senior social worker at Buckinghamshire Council. She was always the biggest personality in the room & a pleasure to be around. She always fought for what was right & protected some of the more vulnerable members of society.
A few years after Mina & Henry’s marriage ended, Mina met her second husband, Chris Smallman. When she realized she was pregnant, the couple got married & soon after, Nicole was born. Although 18 years separated Monique & Nicole while 19 years separated Bibaa & Nicole, the girls were all incredibly close.
Nicole, who was known to her loved ones as Nikki, shared many of the same interests as Bibaa, especially their love of the arts. The University of Westminster graduate was an incredibly calm, laid back & approachable person who loved photography.
In contrast to her older sister’s bold personality, Nicole was much more mellow than Bibaa. She was a passionate artist who loved her work in the theater as well as documentary making. She was also a singer & an actor who had a smooth voice that would have been perfect for TV or radio. According to her friends, she had been born in the wrong decade since she was a true hippie at heart.
As everyone came together in the park on that Friday evening in June to celebrate Bibaa’s birthday, Nicole had been dating her boyfriend, Adam Stone, for six years. The couple, who lived together with Adam’s parents, were said to be the perfect match, both calm & peaceful people who were passionate about making music.
During the gathering, Bibaa’s best friend Nina gave her a necklace that matched her own, a Hamsa hand which is a symbol of power & strength against the evil eye. As Nina clasped it around her friend’s neck, in what became a sick twist of irony, she told her that it would help protect her in life.
As midnight was approaching, the group gradually began to thin down to the point that only Bibaa & Nicole remained up on the hill. The girls were having so much fun so they decided to stay a little longer as they laughed, danced & took photos of their time together.
As Nina left that night, she looked back with a smile on her face, seeing the sisters cracking up as they spun around with fairy lights wrapped around their bodies, snapping photos. Never once did she question their safety since throughout the evening, the park had given the feel of hanging out in someone’s back yard.
Nicole’s boyfriend Adam, who hadn’t been in attendance that night, texted her to check in & see how everything was going. She responded at 1:05 am writing, good, dancing in a field. He asked if she could text again so he knew she was safe & she said she would. This was sadly the last anyone would hear from either Bibaa or Nicole.
Adam continued to text throughout that night & into the later morning of Saturday, June 6, which was a very gloomy, rainy day. His worry increased with each passing hour that he didn’t hear from Nicole since it wasn’t like her to go without communication. When he touched base with her friends, although they hadn’t heard from her, they just assumed that they were sleeping in, likely at Bibaa’s, since they’d been out late.
Nina had been texting Bibaa that morning, sending her all of the photos she’d taken the night before, expecting Bibaa to do the same when she woke up. She saw that her friend had changed her profile picture at 1:05 am to a photo that was taken during the picnic.
When Mina woke up that morning, she saw a text message that Bibaa had sent the night before that included a photo from the gathering. She texted back at 9:44 am, saying that she wanted to hear all about it. Since she knew that her girls had a late night, she expected they were likely still sleeping & didn’t expect to hear from them until much later in the day.
Adam, on the other hand, who was beginning to panic, called Mina that afternoon, explaining that he hadn’t been able to reach Nicole since about 1 am the night before. Mina & Monique were trying to stay positive, thinking maybe the girls had just come home & gone straight to bed without charging their phones.
By evening, they could no longer rationalize their concerns & everyone began to feel in their hearts that something was most definitely wrong since it wasn’t at all like Bibaa or Nicole to go without communicating.
A WhatsApp group was created between Adam & two of Nicole’s close friends, Hannah & Saph. They called around to area hospitals thinking maybe they had gotten into an accident. Finding that this wasn’t the case, while Adam went to Bibaa’s apartment, Saph contacted the police to report the women missing after they’d gone without contact for about 19 hours.
Adam stood outside Bibaa’s building, ringing her unit, unable to gain access to the building itself, while he could see that her apartment was dark inside.
When Saph called the police, now for the fifth time, she explained that Bibaa didn’t seem to be home & she was told that police would need to do a room search of Nicole’s house.
Although they didn’t understand why, Adam went back home to await the arrival of an officer, but no one came. Growing more & more frustrated & desperate, Saph called the police yet again, the calls continuing throughout the night as she asked when an officer would arrive at Nicole’s house. Each time she called, she got the feeling that she wasn’t being taken seriously. By this time more than 24 hours had gone by since anyone had seen or heard from Bibaa or Nicole.
Mina thought that as the girls’ mother, she might be taken more seriously if she contacted the police herself. Although the woman she spoke with assured her that she would look into things, she never heard back.
As the sun rose on Sunday morning, June 7, Bibaa & Nicole had been missing for about 30 hours. They could only speculate if something had happened to them in the park, on their way home or if they’d gotten back to Bibaa’s apartment & maybe something happened to them there.
The WhatsApp group continued to grow as more & more concerned friends were added, everyone coming together to help with the search.
Information about the women was posted to their social media pages while Adam & his parents went back to Bibaa’s apartment. Once again, there was no answer at the main door of the building so they called the police again, now for the 14th time. When they asked if officers could please break into Bibaa’s apartment, they were hesitant to do so even after Mina voiced her concern about the potential of foul play.
When officers finally did knock Bibaa’s door down, while there was no sign of foul play, it didn’t appear to have been slept in after Friday’s gathering. Although the next obvious thing was for officers to search the park since it had been their last known location, for whatever reason, this didn’t happen.
Concerned family & friends eventually learned that a slew of mistakes had caused a delay in the investigation. The duty inspector decided to close the police logs & a staff member didn’t accurately record information surrounding Nicole’s believed whereabouts. Meanwhile, a missing persons report wasn’t created for Bibaa until Sunday which meant that no action had been taken to find her.
Because they were receiving no assistance from the police despite the 14 calls they made, Adam & his parents, Dave & Jill, met Nina in the park so she could take them to the location of their gathering since the park was so expansive. As they reached the top of the hill, they could see that all of the picnic supplies, including the blankets & pillows, were gone.
Nina’s attention was captured by something lying in the grass that was glinting in the sunlight. As she looked closer, she realized they were Bibaa’s new prescription sunglasses that she had just gifted to herself for her birthday. Since they were expensive, she knew she wasn’t likely to have left them behind. When she contacted the police, the dispatcher seemed completely unconcerned & told her to bring them into the local police station.
While Nina headed to the station, Adam, Dave & Jill continued to search the park, calling out the women’s names. Adam spotted a second pair of sunglasses that were later identified as Nicole’s, but he didn’t touch them. Then Dave called Adam over after he noticed a knife lying in the grass that appeared to have a clean blade.
Immediately panicked, Adam pulled out his phone to dial 999 at 1:18 pm as he ran around, looking into the nearby bushes. As he did, he noticed a pair of shoes & when he dove into the bushes, he found Bibaa & Nicole’s lifeless bodies about ten feet into the bushes. They were intertwined together with stab wounds visible to their bodies while their eyes were open, blank & dull.
He immediately fell to his knees, screaming, feeling as if his whole world had just come to a stop. After he notified the police, he was tasked with informing their loved ones that the girls were no longer alive.
When Mina, who had been waiting next to the phone, heard him say the words, Mina, I’m going to need you to sit down. I found them but they’ve gone. Her knees buckled & she couldn’t stop screaming. She realized she was living her worst nightmare, outliving not one, but two of her three precious daughters. She later recalled that immediately, images of her daughter’s entire lives flashed through her mind from when they were born until they were adults.
Knowing that her husband was on his way to the park, she called Chris & told him to pull over before she broke the devastating news.
As a massive team of investigators arrived at the park, more than 36 hours had gone by since Nicole had sent her last text. During this time, rain had poured down on the women’s bodies, no doubt washing away crucial forensic evidence.
Officers could see a disturbance in the grass between where the knife lay & where Bibaa & Nicole’s bodies were found in the bushes which suggested that after they had been stabbed to death, their killer dragged them to that location so they were concealed.
On Tuesday, investigators learned that local resident Elaine Williams had been watching TV on Friday night at about 1:45 am when she heard a female’s voice followed by an intense piercing scream that she said will stay with her forever. Since these sounds were intermingled with a man shouting, she made the assumption that someone was arguing.
Another woman, Linda Guerrero, had been walking her dog on Sunday morning when she noticed two people in the bushes. When she crouched down & peered in, she thought it was a couple lying together since she noticed a bare back & it appeared they were intertwined together. She called into the bushes, asking if they were okay, but when she hadn’t gotten a response she assumed they were intoxicated & sleeping it off. She later called Street Link, a service that helps those who are sleeping on the streets.
As night began to fall on Sunday, investigators decided to leave Bibaa & Nicole’s remains in the park so they could pick the investigation back up on Monday morning when the sun was up & they were better able to see. They assigned two officers to protect the scene throughout the night.
On Monday morning, June 8, 2020, investigators were back on the hill in Fryent Country Park. When the knife was sent out for analysis, authorities could see that one side of it had been washed clean from the rain. Nicole’s glasses were also found as well as the handheld device they’d used to take photos from Bibaa’s phone that had been set up on a tripod. However, everything else from that evening was gone, including all of the blankets, cushions, bottles of wine & other picnic items.
Investigators came to learn that Martin Ridgeway, who was a member of Barn Hill Conservation Group, had gone to the park on Saturday morning with some garbage bags. He found a huge pile of items that included three cushions, two backpacks, a large blue bag, a white paper bag, food packaging & sauce pans.
Figuring these things had been left behind as trash, he collected them & carried them to the park garbage bins before they were taken to the dump. He noticed red marks, but assumed they were from the sauce pans.
Investigators combed over 40 tons of trash on Monday, but they were unable to find the items. It wasn’t until the following day, Tuesday, June 9, when they found the picnic items that had been depicted in the photos taken on Friday night during the gathering. Blood coated the outside of the bag as well as the cushions inside.
Investigators in the park also came across a pair of bloodied, torn latex gloves & wondered if the killer had injured themself during the attack.
According to the autopsy, Bibaa’s body lacked defensive wounds which suggested that she had no doubt been attacked first. Taken by surprise in the darkness of night as someone suddenly came upon them, she wouldn’t have had a chance to react or fight back. Nicole, on the other hand, had extensive defensive wounds to her arms & hands that proved she had tried in vain to protect both herself & her sister.
While Bibaa had been stabbed eight times total, six were to her chest while two were to her groin & back. One wound was 15 cm/6 inches deep that penetrated her breastbone, piercing her heart & lungs which would have left her unconscious in seconds. The medical examiner noted that the injury would have required severe force.
Nicole, who would have witnessed her sister’s frenzied attack, had been stabbed 28 times. She had injuries to her chest, back, thigh, hip, shoulder, arms & hands, but it was the injuries to her lungs that had been fatal. According to the medical examiner, Bibaa’s death would have been far quicker than that of her sister.
Both women had injuries to their bodies that were consistent with being dragged through the rough undergrowth.
Although investigators were fairly certain that the murder had been entirely random, they needed to rule out those closest to Bibaa & Nicole first. Adam, who was traumatized by having just found the love of his life’s body, provided his DNA & was questioned for hours.
A bottle of tonic water that was purchased by the sisters at a co-op in Kingbury, was found dumped in a nearby bush with blood on it that did not match Bibaa or Nicole. When the foreign DNA came back, it was not a match to anyone close to the women & investigators determined it was from an unknown male whose DNA was not in the national database.
CCTV was combed over as investigators believed the killer had left the park through a footpath off of Valley Drive.
While Mina had been in London for her daughter’s funerals, she received a phone call from their family liaison officer, informing her that the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) wanted to speak with her. She couldn’t imagine what they needed to tell her, but her husband assured her that it couldn’t be worse than what they were currently going through.
They came to learn that an anonymous tip had come through Crime Stoppers that one of the officers who were assigned to protect the crime scene on the Sunday night after Bibaa & Nicole’s bodies had been found, had taken & shared photos of their deceased bodies along with disparaging messages.
47-year-old Deniz Jaffer took four photos while 33-year-old Jaime Lewis took two, each sharing the images between two WhatsApp groups.
Jaime Lewis shared the images with the group chat entitled the A team, which included 41 police officers, writing, unfortunately I’m sat next to two dead birds full of stab wounds. An officer in the group responded, who’s been out stabbing pigeons?
The tone of many of these messages were misogynistic, sexist & racist & included:, My dad kidnapped some African children & used them to make dog food, Now I know why these daft c*nts are getting murdered by their spastic boyfriends, Getting a woman in to bed is like spreading butter. It can be done with a bit of effort using a credit card, but it’s quicker & easier just to use a knife.
Deniz Jaffer shared the photos with a private group involving 10 family & friends that was titled Covid c*nts.
Since Bibaa & Nicole’s bodies had not been visible from the path that was adjacent to the large bush where their bodies lay, the officers would have needed to enter the bush itself, potentially contaminating the crime scene.
Jaffer had left the post he’d been assigned to, climbed into the bushes & took photos of the women’s bodies from about 12 feet away with his cell phone. He sent four images to Lewis, who edited one of the photos, superimposing his face on it with the two victims visible in the background to produce a selfie-style photo.
They were each suspended & after their arrests, they were let out on bail. Moving forward to November 2, 2021, both Deniz Jaffer & Jaime Lewis, who Mina had dubbed Despicable 1 & 2, pleaded guilty to misconduct in public office. In mid-December 2021, Jaffer was sentenced to 2 years & 9 months in prison while Lewis was given 2 years, 3 months.
While the investigation at the park continued, Bibaa & Nicole’s phones were recovered in a pond by divers about 400-500 yards down the hill. Photos & videos depicted their last moments alive together as they spun around with fairy lights draped over their bodies, laughing & enjoying each other. The final photo that was taken at 1:13 am showed Nicole looking to her left, possibly at a dark figure in the park.
Based on witness Elaine Williams, who lived near the park & heard a scream at 1:45 am, the girls were attacked 32 minutes after this photo was taken.
However, a forensic exam on Bibaa & Nicole’s phones proved that the attack had likely occurred earlier than this. Their last contact had been Nicole’s text to Adam just after 1 am on Friday night & between 1:26-3:48 am, someone repeatedly tried to gain access to Bibaa’s phone as the screen turned off & on at least 130 times. Had the killer gotten his hands on Bibaa’s phone at 1:26 am, this was 13 minutes after they took their last photo.
According to the health app, there was a flurry of activity in a specific area of the park which was a time when investigators believe that the killer had accidentally dropped the knife, likely when he was dragging the women’s bodies to the bushes. Realizing his mistake, the app likely depicted his frantic movements as he searched over the area, unable to locate it in the dark. As he held the phone, he walked 1.3 miles before powering it down & throwing it into the pond.
The knife that Dave found shortly before his son came across Bibaa & Nicole’s bodies was determined to be the murder weapon. Authorities came to find that the brand, which was Taylor’s Eye Witness, was only sold in a knife block at Asda or on Amazon. As CCTV footage from an Asda location west of London was combed over, investigators worked to trace the identity of the customers seen purchasing the knife block, hoping it would lead them to the killer.
Investigators also looked into an abandoned camper van that was parked near the entrance of the park. Not only was a mattress found inside with blood on it, but two witnesses indicated that they had seen the owner of the van with injuries to his face. They said that he’d been acting highly suspicious in the timeframe of the murders & they believed he was someone who was capable of violence.
When the man in question was found on CCTV at Waterloo Station, investigators confirmed that he had a cut on his face. However, 24 hours after he was arrested & his DNA was obtained, investigators learned that he was not a match to the crime.
Over the next three weeks, investigators worked 16 hour days in hopes of finding the killer. On June 30, 2020, the 24th day of the investigation, everything came to a head all at once.
Although the killer’s DNA wasn’t in the national database, they wondered if he could be related to a person whose DNA was in the system & they were correct.
A detective received a phone call that someone had come back on the familial DNA as a person of interest, 18-year-old Danyal Hussein. As his name was voiced out loud, another detective in the room realized that his name had been included on the list of customers who had purchased the knife block in question at an Asda near Edgeware Road.
Danyal had purchased the knife block on June 3, 2020, two days before Bibaa’s birthday picnic, using his own debit card & his own passport as proof of age. He bought it along with chewing gum, pre-mixed drink cans, lemons & two candles, all of which totaled £32.29.
His father lived right around the corner from Fyent Country Park & according to CCTV footage from the home, Danyal left on the night of the murders wearing jeans & carrying a backpack. On his return after 4 am, he was no longer wearing jeans & instead, he had a sweatshirt wrapped around his lower body while his arm was covered with a jacket, likely concealing an injury.
Investigators were left to wonder if he had been watching the group for a period of time, seeing more & more guests filter away, leaving Bibaa & Nicole on their own before he made his attack.
As officers prepared to arrest him, they knew he could be found at one of three locations; his dad’s house near the park, his mom’s place in southeast London, or his aunt’s house in Wembley. They started at his dad’s house, but he told officers that his son was with his mother. As authorities headed to that location, an officer stayed with the man to be sure he didn’t alert Danyal to their impending arrival.
While he was arrested at his mother’s house on July 1, 2020, even though nearly a month had passed, he still had severe injuries to his right hand, three of which still had stitches in place. Investigators later recovered CCTV from a local emergency room after his father brought him in to have the wounds addressed on Sunday, June 7, the day that Nicole & Bibaa’s bodies were found. Danyal claimed that he’d gotten injured when he was robbed in the park.
While he was being booked into the station, he told officers that he has Asperger’s syndrome, a diagnosis that is no longer used & is now part of the broader category of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). He also said he has issues with his memory, but then refused to answer further questions.
When his mother’s home was searched, investigators found clothing & a backpack that was similar to what he had been seen wearing on the night of the murders. They also found a handwritten contract with the mighty King Lucifuge Rofocale. According to some Satanic cults, Lucifuge Rofocale is the demon in charge of hell’s government & treasury. In this contract, he promised to murder six women every six months in exchange for winning the Mega Millions Super Jackpot lottery. He then signed the contract in his own blood.
Danyal grew up in Blackheath as the oldest of four siblings. Before the murders, he attended Thomas Tallis school & although he rarely went to class, he studied A Levels (Advanced Levels) at Orpington College until he dropped out. Before his parents divorced when he was in his early teens, neighbors indicated that their house had been very chaotic with a lot of screaming & shouting.
He was described as a loner who often wandered off while a neighbor indicated that his father had grown concerned that he’d fallen into the wrong crowd.
At 15-years-old in October 2017, Danyal was referred to the government’s counter-extremism program, Prevent, based on the material he was looking up using school computers. He had a long-standing interest in mythology, Satanism & the occult & had been utilizing the school computers to search far right material & to look at dead bodies.
He was considered a person of concern & appeared in front of a panel for individuals at risk for being drawn into terrorism. Although he was discharged from the program in May 2018, it seemed he still had extreme beliefs.
Since authorities were only able to access 20% of the data held on his iPad & his mobile phone was never found, police couldn’t establish how he’d been drawn into a world of demons, spells & far-right ideology that became the motive for the murders.
Based on his writings, some investigators believe that he didn’t like Black or Asian people & that the murders had been racially motivated. According to his internet activities, he spent a lot of time on the dark web & there were forums where Danyal had been very active. The teen, who is of Iraqi-Kurdish descent, was communicating with far right groups as well as Aryan Brotherhood, where he was vocal about white people being the superior race.
After his arrest, he had at least four mental health assessments, but none concluded that he was unfit to stand trial.
On March 11, 2021, 278 days after the murders, Danyal entered a not guilty plea despite the slew of damning evidence against him. This included CCTV footage that proved he’d purchased the murder weapon at Asda two days before Bibaa’s birthday gathering as well as the footage near his dad’s house close to the park that showed him coming & going during the timeframe of the murders.
The torn, bloodied latex glove at the crime scene proved their killer had been injured & two days after the party, Danyal went to the ER to address the severe injuries to his right hand. Most damning of all, blood found in the park was a billion times more likely to have come from him than from anyone else.
The trial began at the Old Bailey on June 9, 2021, one year after the murders. Jurors were told that Danyal had arrived at the park 45 minutes after Bibaa & Nicole on the evening of Friday, June 5, 2020, utilizing an entrance from where he would have been able to easily see their gathering.
When Danyal got back to his dad’s house at 4 am on Saturday morning with extensive injuries to his right hand, he claimed to have been robbed by a group of Black youths. The defense argued that these alleged robbers could have transferred Danyal’s blood onto the crime scene after murdering the women themselves.
The fact that officers Deniz Jaffer & Jamie Lewis breached the crime scene they had been assigned to protect, would have only further contaminated evidence when they snapped the dehumanizing photos of Bibaa & Nicole.
On July 6, 2021, jurors were back with a verdict, finding 19-year-old Danyal Hussein guilty of both murders. On October 28, 2021, he was sentenced to life with a minimum of 35 years behind bars, meaning, he’ll be 54-years-old before he has a chance of parole.
In the aftermath of both the trials for Danyal Hussein as well as former officers Jaffer & Lewis, Mina Smallman requested that the IOPC investigate the mishandling of her daughters’ case. This included their delayed search for the women as well as the attitudes & disinterested tones that their family & friends were met with when they tried to get assistance in finding Bibaa & Nicole.
After a 13 month inquiry, the IOPC concluded that although the police service provided was unacceptable, they found no evidence that the delays had been related to discrimination, something Mina said felt like a punch to the gut.
It had taken 25 hours & 14 phone calls for their concerned family & friends to receive any help at all. Because of the delays in searching for the women, it had been Adam who had been left to find Bibaa & Nicole’s bodies, making everything that much more harrowing. Not to mention, their negligence could have severely compromised the investigation as evidence was at risk of being erased in the 36 hours that their bodies lay in the park under the pouring rain.
Mina has since made it her mission to fight the cruel bigotry corrupting the police force & to campaign for the protection of women & girls. Since she’s attended many speaking events, the stories she’s heard from other women never get less shocking. One woman told her that when she was reporting a rape, the male officer asked her out for a drink. After she told him no, he called her at home asking to take photos of the bruises on her body. Although she reported him, he went on to be promoted.
Until the bad behavior of those in positions of authority changes, Mina plans to keep a fire in her belly which keeps her going in the wake of her sometimes overwhelming grief. She continues on for her girls as well as other women like them.
1 in 3 women in the UK experience abuse in their lifetime while a woman is murdered every three days as a result of male violence. In Bibaa & Nicole’s cases, the grief of their murders was further exacerbated by the callous & unprofessional actions of a number of officers who showed an alarming lack of empathy beginning from the moment their concerned family & friends reported them missing.
Bibaa Henry & Nicole Smallman were two sisters who’d gone to the park to celebrate a birthday & never came home. What happened to them is truly horrific, but what happened afterward left wounds that will likely never heal. Trust was broken by the very people sworn to protect, which is why Mina Smallman has refused to stay silent. She continues to fight for dignity, accountability & humanity that’s owed to every victim regardless of race or gender.
Bibaa & Nicole deserve to be remembered for so much more than how their lives ended & the failures that followed their deaths.
References:
- The Guardian: Two Met police officers jailed over photos of murdered sisters
- The Guardian: Bibaa & Nicole: Murder in the Park review – the bigotry of the police is still barely believable
- BBC: Wembley park stabbings: Sisters murder accused ‘scared’ after arrest
- BBC: Wembley park stabbings: Piercing scream heard on night sisters were killed
- BBC: Wembley park stabbings: Danyal Hussein guilty of murdering sisters
- BBC: Wembley park stabbings: Boyfriend screamed after finding sisters’ bodies
- BBC: Bibaa & Nicole: The life after death of two sisters
- Sky Showtime: Two Sisters: Missing, Murdered, Betrayed
- British Vogue: Mina Smallman: “My daughter’s murders moved me to begin a new mission”
- Solace: Bibaa Henry & Nicole Smallman – Two years on
- Sky News: Nicole Smallman & Bibaa Henry: Mother of murdered sisters dismisses Met police apology after ‘unacceptable’ response
- Sky News: Police officers who shared WhatsApp photos of murdered sisters’ bodies referred to women as ‘dead birds’
- Daily Echo: Haunting images of dancing sisters on night they died shown in court
- WebMD: Asperger’s Syndrome
- Itv: Wembley park deaths: ‘Piercing scream’ heard on night two sisters were stabbed to death, court told
- The Times: Teenager made satanic deal before killing sisters Bibaa Henry & Nicole Smallman in park
- PodScripts: Casefile True Crime – Case 281: Bibaa Henry & Nicole Smallman
- IOPC Conduct & criminal investigation: Operation Turton
- The Voice: Bibaa Henry & Nicole Smallman: Court hears graphic details of injuries sustained by sisters killed in a London park
