A Metropolitan Police Inspector who decided to close a missing person report made about Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry, was trying to simultaneously manage 16 missing person reports whilst at the same time having 50% fewer resources.
During the early hours of Saturday 6th June 2020, evil Danyal Hussein, who was 18-years-old at the time, murdered 46-year-old Bibaa Henry and 27-year-old Nicole Smallman in Fryent Country Park.
Between the evening of Saturday 6th June and Sunday 7th June, family members and friends reported Nicole and Bibaa missing and informed the Met that this was entirely out of character for them.
The last time that they were seen was Friday 5th June, when they attended Fryent Park in Wembley, to celebrate Ms Henry’s birthday with friends.
Shortly before 21:00 hours on 6th June, the first call was made to the Met Police from a friend of Ms Smallman, asking if the police had any information on her whereabouts.
By the time the first missing person report was made, the sisters had already been murdered by Hussein.
At 21:00 hours on Saturday 6th June, another friend reported Ms Smallman missing to the MPS, after which officers started a missing person (MISPER) investigation.
A third call was made at 22:24 hours, again reporting both women missing.
Following information subsequently received by the Met from a family member regarding Ms Henry’s believed whereabouts on the evening of 6th June, a decision was then taken by the duty inspector to close the police logs (CAD).
The information provided by the family member suggested she was not overly concerned about the sisters and would call back in the morning of the 7th if needed.
The investigation established that the duty inspector believed the information provided by the family member was a justifiable explanation for the sisters’ disappearance.
Neither the Met Police nor the IOPC has revealed what this information was, with a spokesperson for the IOPC confirming: ‘We are unable to go into specifics.’
The closure of the police logs did not close the missing persons report created for Nicole but did prevent the deployment of officers to Nicole’s home.
The IOPC investigation found that the inspector subsequently did not properly progress missing person enquiries for Nicole or Bibaa.
The inspector told the investigation that when the missing person reports were made, it had been one of the most challenging shifts of his career, with 16 missing person reports open – on top of the other outstanding calls – and the North West Command Unit being under capacity by almost 50 per cent during the Covid pandemic.
The information provided by the family member regarding the believed whereabouts of Nicole and Bibaa was recorded on a police log by a civilian staff member working in the force control room.
The IOPC said that their investigation found that the civilian staff member did not accurately record the information provided but did not go into specifics.
Following the decision to close the police logs, the staff member did not update family members that police were no longer attending Ms Smallman’s home to carry out a room search, which is an initial response when the Met police take a Misper report.
A search by the sisters’ families and friends of the last known location where the sisters were together led to the harrowing discovery of their bodies at 13:20 hours on 7 June in Fryent Country Park.
Detectives who investigated the murders found that Danyal Hussein of Guy Barnet Grove, Eltham, had drawn up a handwritten contract, signed in his blood, in which he had pledged with a ‘demon’ to murder six women every six months in return for financial reward.
He had written notes to the Devil, promising to murder so that he could win the lottery.
During Hussein’s trial at the Old Bailey, Oliver Glasgow QC said
“Why he chose [the sisters] or what it was about them that caught his attention is also unclear.
“But, once their friends had left, two of them were far more vulnerable: distracted by the fun they were having, eye-catching because of the lights they were playing with, and now on their own.”
Hussein suffered a cut to his hand during his despicable and cowardly crimes. When he needed treatment for it the next day, he claimed he lied and said he had been mugged.
Investigators believed he would have committed more murders without the injury to his hand, which impeded his ability to hold objects.
According to the BBC, ‘Nearly a month after the deaths, a DNA link was made by police to Hussein’s father, who had a past caution, and officers raided the defendant’s home.’
From October 2017 to May 2018, Hussein was monitored by the Prevent strategy when at 15, he accessed far-right material on computers at Thomas Tallis School.
Talking about the investigation into the Met’s response following the missing person reports, the IOPC’s Regional Director for London, Sal Naseem, said:
“Once again my thoughts and sympathies are with the family and friends of Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry.
“Their deaths caused unimaginable heartache, loss and grief, feelings which were heightened by the inadequate service the family and friends received from the Metropolitan Police when reporting the sisters missing.
“Had the MPS focused on progressing the missing person investigation it may have prevented the further distress caused to Nicole and Bibaa’s loved ones, who made the harrowing discovery after organising their own search party.
“As well as identifying three individuals whose performance fell below the standards expected of them, this investigation also identified failings in the service provided, for which we have now advised the MPS to apologise to the family.
“It is vital that the force addresses these shortcomings and effects long-lasting change and improvement to help restore public confidence in the MPS.”
As a result of the findings an inspector, from the North West Command, and a member of police staff, a communications supervisor attached to Met Command and Control at Lambeth, must undertake ‘unsatisfactory performance procedures’.
They will both attend formal meetings to discuss their performance and appropriate action going forward.
A second member of police staff, a call handler based at Met Command and Control at Hendon, will receive ‘management action’, meaning they will have a performance discussion with their line manager around what they can learn from what happened and how they can improve.
Commissioner Cressida Dick said:
“My thoughts and deepest sympathies are with the family and friends of Nicole and Bibaa for their tragic losses.
“The way we responded to information that Nicole and Bibaa were missing that weekend was below the standard we should have achieved and compounded the distress felt by their loved ones.
“While we know that very sadly Nicola and Bibaa had been murdered in the early hours of Saturday, 6 June 2020, before they were reported missing, if we had responded better we may have saved their friends and family immeasurable pain.
“I am very sorry that the level of service we provided fell short. We have contacted the family to ask if they will allow me or, if they prefer, another senior officer to visit them at a time that is right to apologise in person.”
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As a former cop, I occasionally watch Police Interceptors, Traffic Coos, or whatever. I watched one of these last night, in which a large male dog handler was asked to assist the only cop on duty in z town 10 miles away…this was out kicking out time, when the likelihood of violence and drunken disorderliness are most likely to occur. The lone officer he went to assist was a 5’2″ middle aged woman! Without the usual nonsense about female cops being equal to male ones, are forces not leaving themselves wide open to compensation claims, as well as negligence in terms of exposing lone officers, particularly short females, unnecessarily to risk? It seems that similarly, this Inspector has been hung out to dry with an excessive workload for too few staff. Intelligence led policing is not the panacea many chief officers claim.