Police failings “materially contributed” to the deaths of a mother and daughter killed while on a 999 call for help, an inquest has found.
Raneem Oudeh, 22, and her mother Khaola Saleem were killed by Ms Oudeh’s estranged husband, Janbaz Tarin, then aged 21, outside Mrs Saleem’s home in Solihull in 2018. Tarin had previously harassed and stalked his former partner, sleeping outside her home for twelve nights and carving her name upon his arm.
Tarin, who admitted the killings, was given a life sentence with a minimum of 32 years in December 2018.
Ms Oudeh's family said that West Midlands police had failed them “beyond imagination”.
Nour Norris, Mrs Saleem’s sister and Ms Oudeh’s aunt, said that the failure of the police "has led to the death of our beloved sister Khaola and her daughter Raneem".
"Both were murdered at the hands of the ex-husband of Raneem after a history of domestic abuse, coercive control and stalking - all of which police were aware of at the time," she said in a statement outside the court.
She added that the police "had so many opportunities to save their lives right up until the end" and that "both were murdered while on the phone to police begging for help".
On the night of their deaths, Ms Oudeh made four 999 calls to police after Tarin harassed and assaulted both her and her mother at a shisha restaurant. He followed the two women home and fatally attacked them while Ms Oudeh was on the phone to police.
In her last call to police at 12.26 am she told them she would be staying at her mother’s address in Solihull.
Officers called her back ten minutes later to say that they would call her the following morning. During this call, Ms Oudeh’s screams can be heard, crying, “he’s there, he’s there”.
Police called to house seven times in weeks preceding murders
The inquest heard that police were called to Ms Oudeh’s address on seven different occasions in the weeks preceding the murders.
Her marriage to Tarin had broken down following the discovery that he had another wife and family in Afghanistan. Ms Oudeh told her family that he threatened to kill her and her family if she left him.
An investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct found that there were “missed opportunities” for West Midlands Police to take action to help Ms Oudeh before she and her mother were killed, with IOPC Regional Director Derrick Campbell describing the circumstances of the case as “shocking and profoundly disturbing”.
He added that in the view of the IOPC the WMP dealt with each incident in “isolation” and failed to consider the “potential increase” in the frequency or level of Tarin’s violence.
In a statement, West Midlands Police apologised to the family, and said that “the seriousness and pattern of abuse should have been better recognised”, and that action should have been taken against Tarin.
