Police errors ‘contributed to murder of mother and daughter’
POLICE failings ‘materially contributed’ to the deaths of a mother and daughter at the hands of the younger woman’s ‘obsessive’ ex-partner, an inquest jury found yesterday.
Raneem Oudeh, 22, and her mother Khowla Saleem, 49, were stabbed to death by Raneem’s estranged husband Janbaz Tarin.
He was jailed for life in December 2018 after admitting murdering the women on the August bank holiday weekend of that year.
The jury at Birmingham and Solihull Coroner’s Court ruled at the end of a three-week hearing yesterday that the pair were unlawfully killed. Ten domestic abuse incidents concerning Tarin’s conduct were reported to West Midlands Police between April and August 2018.
The court heard that in the hours leading up to the stabbings, Miss Oudeh made three calls to police – and was on the phone to officers when Tarin, then 21, struck outside her mother’s home in Solihull.
Last night, as the force apologised and admitted it ‘should have done more’, Mrs Saleem’s sister Naur Norris said outside court: ‘The failure of the West Midlands Police has led to the death of our beloved sister Khowla and her daughter Raneem.’
Adding that the force was aware of Tarin’s ‘ history of domestic abuse, coercive control and stalking’, she said: ‘West Midlands Police have failed Khowla and Raneem beyond imagination. They had so many opportunities to save their lives right up until the end. Both were murdered while on the phone to police begging for help.’
The court heard that Miss Oudeh and Tarin married in an Islamic ceremony in 2017 but, as they signed paperwork, he whispered to her: ‘In our culture we don’t have divorce. Now you’re my wife, the day you leave, I will kill you.’
The couple split up after Miss Oudeh discovered Tarin had a wife and children in Afghanistan. She secured a non-molestation order against him after he smashed her phone on August 10, 2018.
But a fortnight later he tailed the mother and daughter to a shisha bar in Birmingham. He was seen arguing with Miss Oudeh on CCTV there and Miss Oudeh was seen making the first of her calls that night to police. But the police were delayed in arriving as they were dealing with a firearms incident and the women left.
By then, Tarin had driven off to fetch a 12-inch steak knife. Later, he headed to Mrs Saleem’s home, where Miss Oudeh was staying in fear Tarin may attack her at her own address.
At 12.26am Miss Oudeh made the last of her calls to police to say she would be at the Solihull address. Ten minutes later they called her back to say officers would call her the following morning to go through the shisha bar incident.
During that call screaming could be heard in the background, with the words ‘he’s there, there, there’. There were further screams before the call went silent.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct said it served nine officers with misconduct notices and found five had a case to answer, all of whom received management action.
The force’s Assistant Chief Constable Andy Hill said after the jury’s conclusion: ‘It is clear that we should have done more to join up the incidents of abuse that were being reported to us. The risk posed by Mr Tarin should have been better assessed.’
He said the force had made improvements around domestic violence training and procedures.
‘Many chances to save their lives’
‘Should have done more’