35 years for teen who knifed two sisters to death in a horrifying ‘pact with demon’
THE mother of two sisters savagely stabbed to death by a satanist in a ‘pact with a demon’ blasted police blunders for a second time yesterday.
It came as Danyal Hussein, 19, was sentenced to life with a minimum of 35 years for murdering Bibaa Henry, 46, and Nicole Smallman, 27.
In an emotional statement outside the Old Bailey, Mina Smallman, a retired archdeacon, thanked Scotland Yard for bringing the killer to justice but attacked the force over failings made when the women were reported missing.
Mrs Smallman said: ‘Today we can celebrate what is wonderful about the Metropolitan Police Service. But we do have a problem. We do have an underground that has infiltrated the Met and is growing.’
Earlier this week, the Independent Office for Police Conduct watchdog identified mistakes by the Met when the sisters were reported missing, including failing to deploy officers for 12 hours.
Mrs Smallman rejected an apology from Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick, saying: ‘Sorry just won’t cut it.’ She also accused an inspector who made unprofessional comments about the sisters of ‘racial profiling, misogyny or classism’.
Hussein, who had written a note to a demon signed in his blood promising to sacrifice six women every six months, attended the hearing via video-link for
‘He is just an obnoxious little boy’
Covid-related reasons at London’s Belmarsh Prison. In a final act of defiance, he turned his chair to face away from the screen half-way through. He squatted with his feet on the chair and stared out of the window as Mrs Justice Philippa Whipple handed down the sentence.
He continually shouted out and the link was muted. Mrs Smallman, who was the Church of England’s first black female archdeacon, said: ‘It is all a performance.
‘That is a person trying to get attention, elicit sympathy or make people believe there is something very wrong with him. There’s nothing wrong with him – he’s just an obnoxious little boy.’
She said Hussein was deluded enough to think that he would be released after 35 years but vowed to ensure this would not happen.
She insisted: ‘He has been given 35 years but I don’t think they will ever let him out. I won’t let them let him out.’ The sisters had been celebrating Miss Henry’s 46th birthday in Fryent Country Park, near Wembley, north-west London, when Hussein struck in the early hours of June 6 last year.
He stabbed Miss Henry eight times and Miss Smallman 28 times and dragged their bodies into bushes where they were found intertwined the next day by Miss Smallman’s boyfriend Adam Stone. Police discovered the note to a demon named Lucifuge Rofocale at Hussein’s mother’s house, and found he had bought lottery tickets, a set of knives, shovels and a balaclava.
Jurors had heard that Hussein, of Blackheath, south-east London, had embarked on a ‘campaign of vengeance’ against random women. He apparently thought that if he sacrificed six, he would win a lottery prize of more than £300million.
The judge said she would have considered a whole life prison term for the killer, but it was not an option because he was not yet 21. She said Hussein has an autism spectrum disorder, but his culpability for the horrific crime was not reduced by mental impairment. She told him: ‘You had found these two women. You were a stranger to them. You surprised them, you terrified them and you killed them. You committed these vicious attacks. You did it to kill. You did it for money and a misguided pursuit of power.’
Mrs Smallman revealed after the hearing that Miss Henry’s daughter had recently given birth to a son, adding: ‘She has left behind a legacy. They were beautiful, beautiful girls. With Nicole, our grief is more for her because there was 20 years’ difference – she had 20 years less than Bibaa. To know her was to love her.’
She said she felt justice had been done but was not satisfied that Hussein escaped a whole life sentence because of his age, stressing: ‘I think we do need to review that separation of when someone becomes an adult. It is disrespectful to say that children cannot tell the difference between good and evil.’ Hussein had been found guilty of murder at a trial in July.
Home Secretary Priti Patel said: ‘This was truly a terrible, tragic case, but sadly I know it’s not the first. And I think it’s right actually that questions are being asked within the Metropolitan Police right now. We’re very clear not just in our determination that the work that we are doing to stop violence against women and girls but making sure we do more in terms of preventing abuse and preventing violence.’
She insisted: ‘There is also an important message that everyone across policing must respond in the right way to complaints of violence, reporting of violence against women and girls, but ultimately do much more in the protection and the prevention of these abhorrent crimes.’
Two police officers have been accused of taking inappropriate photos at the crime scene and sharing them on WhatsApp. They will appear in court next month.