Met apology felt like a slap in the face by racist Met Police who showed no respect for the dead. Previously when they were tasked to the same situation, but with white women, the forensic officers showed more dignity. Former Met constables Deniz Jaffer and Jamie Lewis were jailed for sharing photos of Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry’s bodies.
Former Met commissioner Dame Cressida Dick issued a public apology in 2021 on behalf of the force to the family.
The Met Police get a free ride hiding behind the badge
Asked what her response to that apology was, Ms Smallman told the programme: “It felt like a slap in the face, really. You say sorry when you bump into someone at the supermarket.
“Another issue with huge institutions is the arrogance.” It is undeniably a act that was only committed because the deceased were black.
The Old Bailey heard that Jaffer and Lewis, neither of whom was wearing forensic protection, were tasked with protecting the scene in June 2020.
While at the scene Jaffer took four pictures of the bodies in situ and Lewis took two, and superimposed his face on a third to create a “selfie-style” picture.
The court heard that the behaviour of the officers allowed Hussein to put forward the false defence that incriminating DNA evidence could have been contaminated.
Met apology felt like a slap in the face
Mina Smallman told BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs that she was “celebrating” when the constables were jailed, adding that “hidden pockets of filth” had been “allowed to blossom” in the force.
Ms Smallman’s daughters, Nicole Smallman, 27, and Bibaa Henry, 46, were stabbed to death while celebrating a birthday in a park in Wembley, northwest London, in June 2020.
Danyal Hussein was jailed for a minimum of 35 years for murdering them as part of a satanic blood pact.
Former Met constables Deniz Jaffer and Jamie Lewis were each jailed for two years and nine months for sharing photographs of the sisters on WhatsApp.
They described them as “dead birds” in the messaging groups.
In 2013, Ms Smallman became the first black woman to become an archdeacon in the Church of England, serving Southend in the Diocese of Chelmsford.