‘Get the rot out of Met Police once and for all’
Mum’s demand after officers share pics of murdered daughters’ bodies on Whatsapp
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.
Jaffer took four photographs and Lewis superimposed his own face onto a picture with the victims in the background.
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 yesterday, the officers admitted misconduct in a public office.
The pair, who were attached to the Met’s North East command unit, were suspended from duty following their arrests on June 22 last year and Jaffer has since left the force.
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.”
Asked if the Met Commissioner should resign, she said: “Kicking people out does not fix the problem. Keep her in the position and get her to do the job.”
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.
Last week, Satanist Danyal Hussein, 19, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 35 years for murdering Ms Henry and Ms Smallman.