Met to apologise to family of murdered sisters for failings

THE Metropolitan Police will apologise to the family of two murdered sisters after a watchdog found that the police response to reports that they were missing was “unacceptable”.

In June last year, sisters Nicole Smallman, 27, and Bibaa Henry, 46, were murdered by Danyal Hussein in a north London park as they celebrated Henry’s birthday.

Their family and friends reported them missing the next day, but relatives felt officers did not take them seriously.

A search by the sisters’ families and friends of the last known location where they were together led to the “harrowing discovery” of their bodies on June 7 in Fryent Country Park.

Last night, the Independent Office for Police Conduct concluded that the level of service provided to the family was “unacceptable”.

The IOPC found that a call handler referred to one of the missing sisters as a “suspect” and “appeared dismissive during a call with a friend of one of the sisters”. The member of staff will receive management action, while an inspector and a civilian staff member must undertake unsatisfactory performance procedures to improve their professional capabilities, the IOPC said.

Dame Cressida Dick, the Met commissioner, accepted the findings of the IOPC. She said: “My thoughts and deepest sympathies are with the family and friends of Nicole and Bibaa for their tragic losses. The way we responded to information that Nicole and Bibaa were missing that weekend was below the standard we should have achieved and compounded the distress felt by their loved ones.

“While we know that very sadly Nicola and Bibaa had been murdered in the early hours of Saturday, June 6 2020, before they were reported missing, if we had responded better we may have saved their friends and family immeasurable pain.

“I am very sorry that the level of service we provided fell short. We have contacted the family to ask if they will allow me or, if they prefer, another senior officer to visit them at a time that is right to apologise in person.”

The IOPC said the evidence did not indicate that the failings in the missing persons case were a result of stereotyping based on the sisters’ race.