LAST UPDATE | 6 Dec 2021
TWO UK POLICE officers who took pictures of murdered sisters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman have been jailed for two years and nine months.
Pc Deniz Jaffer and Pc Jamie Lewis were assigned to guard the scene after Bibaa Henry, 46, and Nicole Smallman, 27, were found dead in bushes in Fryent Country Park, Wembley, north-west London.
Instead, the officers moved from their posts to take photographs of the bodies, which were then shared with colleagues and friends on WhatsApp.
One was a “selfie-style” image which Lewis had superimposed his face on.
The officers’ “shameful” behaviour also included describing the victims as “dead birds” on WhatsApp groups.
Jaffer, 47, of Hornchurch, east London, and Lewis, 33, from Colchester, Essex, pleaded guilty to misconduct in a public office.
Today, Judge Mark Lucraft QC rejected an appeal for the officers to be spared custody, jailing each of the men for two years and nine months.
The judge condemned their “appalling and inexplicable conduct”.
Judge Lucraft said: “The public expects, and rightly so, the highest of standards from police officers.
“I am sure there will be many thousands of officers in police forces in this country and abroad utterly horrified by your actions.
“It is appalling and inexplicable conduct.
“Here, the two of you not only violated the police cordon with the effect that had on the scene and on the investigation, but then wholly disregarded the privacy of the two victims of horrific violence and their families for what can only have been some cheap thrill, kudos, a kick or some form of bragging right by taking images and then passing them to others.”
In victim impact statements, family members described the defendants as a “disgrace” to the police family and to mankind.
The women’s mother, Mina Smallman, said the officers’ actions were a “betrayal of catastrophic proportions” and a “sacrilegious act”.
She said: “Jaffer and Lewis callously and without any regard for our dead girls’ bodies committed, to my mind, a sacrilegious act.
“We were told …the police officers whose task it was to protect and preserve the crime scene had, in fact, for their own amusement, took selfies, posing for pictures with our dead daughters.
“We were horrified. I had never heard of anything so macabre.
“Those police officers felt so safe, so untouchable, they felt they would take photos of our murdered daughters. Those officers dehumanised our children.
She added that the actions of the officers amounted to “pure misogyny”.
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