“I cannot forgive Metropolitan Police officers for the ‘hurtful’ photos of dead girls,” says grieving mother Mina Smallman

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The mother of two murdered women says she cannot forgive the two police officers who “raped” her by taking photos of their bodies.

Mina Smallman said she feels no “hatred” toward the man who killed her daughters Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry in June 2020.

However, speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme, she said she had not forgiven the officers for sending photos of their bodies to a WhatsApp chat group.

She said: “Obviously what they did was not as bad as murder.”

“But you’re telling me that you abused our girls even more? I haven’t forgiven you.”

Nicole Smallman, 27, and wife Henry, 46, were stabbed to death by Danyal Hussein. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 35 years.

Deniz Jaffer and Jamie Lewis were police officers assigned to guard the crime scene after the women were found dead in bushes in Fryent Country Park, London, in June 2020. Officers took photographs of the women’s bodies, labelled them “dead birds” and sent them to a WhatsApp chat.

Jaffer and Lewis were each sentenced to two years and nine months in prison at a hearing at the Old Bailey in December after pleading guilty to abuse of office.

Ms Smallman said her feelings about the police motivated her to continue working with the organisation on reforms.

However, she said she was suicidal when the two officers were about to be released.

“I knew they were going to get out, but the whole trauma of their journey – the impact of their appeal, their request to be placed in open prison – I just thought, ‘Oh, you know what, I don’t want to be here. I’d just had enough. I’d had enough of everything. And yes, I tried to take my own life,'” she said.

The women’s safety activist said police need to take the misogynistic radicalisation of young men online more seriously.

“During the lockdown, a lot of things have accelerated… (young men have been) exposed to dialogues that suggest that if you can’t find a girlfriend, it’s because women have become more dominant and men have lost their place in society.”

“This is a radicalization that is happening to our young men. It feeds these haters to hate even more and gives them the means to hurt the women in their lives.”

Despite the actions of Lewis and Jaffer, Ms Smallman said she still had faith in the police.

“The majority of police officers are good people.”

“I’m invited by different police departments all over the country to speak to them about my experiences… This is what I do and I know it keeps me alive. I’m really honored to meet the parents and women’s groups that support victims and survivors of male aggression.”

The Metropolitan Police have been contacted for comment.