The family of two sisters whose killer was this week convicted of their murders are considering suing the police over alleged failures to act when they were reported missing.
The Rev Mina Smallman, the mother of Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman, indicated the potential legal action would revolve around “neglect … what should have been done and wasn’t done” over the period when the sisters first went missing.
“I know who I phoned. We know who phoned – all the friends who made calls – and we are going to make it really, really clear they did not do what they should have done,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “When we said their ages and it wasn’t their normal behaviour, that in itself should have taken it up to maximum security.”
It was not yet a case against Scotland Yard “but it could well be”, she said, as an investigation into the Met’s handling of the case by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) was still ongoing.
Danyal Hussein, 19, was convicted on Tuesday of murdering the sisters on Friday 5 June last year at Fryent Country Park in north-west London after the women gathered with friends to celebrate Henry’s birthday.
Their bodies were found in undergrowth on 7 June by Nicole’s boyfriend, Adam Stone, who had begun looking for the women when she was not contactable on the day after the party. There is a discrepancy between when he recalls first calling the Met, at 5pm on 6 June, and when the Met says the first missing persons call was made, which has been given as 9pm.
“He said that he had phoned the police and they are not dong anything,” Mina Smallman said in an ITV news interview.
Other calls continued to be made by Mina Smallman and others and the family are angry at what they regard as a lack of urgency. “It was a different person every time … there was no follow-up. To cut a very long story short, we had to do the missing persons [search]. We had to track down who was at the picnic,” she said.
In evidence during the trial, Stone had told how he had become increasingly concerned over the course of the Saturday after receiving no new messages from Nicole since 1am. After visiting the car park at Fryent Country Park, he and his mother had travelled to Henry’s flat, from where they called the police.
“The police said they would come to Bibaa’s flat, but they couldn’t say when,” Stone’s mother, Jill, said.
On the Sunday, when the bodies were found, the police had been called again by Nina Esmat, a friend who had attended the birthday, after she found Henry’s glasses. A knife and the bodies were discovered shortly afterwards. It was then that two police officers originally deployed to help in the missing persons inquiry were sent to the scene, which they secured before it was forensically examined over the following days.
Asked about Mina Smallman’s comments, Scotland Yard said it could not comment while the IOPC investigation was under way.
A hearing will take place on Monday in relation to two Met police officers who have been charged with misconduct in public office over photographs taken at the scene of the murders, and which were then allegedly shared in a WhatsApp group.
• This article was amended on 8 July 2021 to include the Rev Mina Smallman’s honorific title as a retired archdeacon.
