Two Metropolitan police officers who took pictures of two murdered women and shared them in WhatsApp groups have been jailed for two years and nine months.
Deniz Jaffer and Jamie Lewis were guarding the scene where sisters, Nicole Smallman, 27, and Bibaa Henry, 46 were found stabbed to death.
Nicole and Bibba were stabbed to death by Danyal Hussein, a satan obsessed teenager.
Evidence heard at the Old Bailey said that the two officers took pictures of the women and sent them to WhatsApp group where they called the sisters “dead birds”.
One of the images was edited, with Lewis editing his face into the pictures.
Jaffer resigned from the Metropolitan Police and Lewis was dismissed following a disciplinary tribunal.
Joel Smith of the prosecution told the Old Bailey, “The bodies of the women would not have been visible from the path adjacent to the large bush where they were found. Nor would it have been possible to take the photographs taken by the defendants from their position on the cordon.
“Accordingly, to take the photos found on their phones, the officers would have had to enter the bush itself, thus risking contamination of the crime scene.
“The offending stripped Ms Henry and Ms Smallman of dignity in death. That factor is more weighty given that the offenders were charged with protecting their bodies.”
The judge, Mark Lucraft QC, described the act as “appalling” and done for a “cheap thrill.”
Mother of the two sisters, Mina Smallman said in her victim impact statement, “It made me think of the lynchings in the Deep South of the USA where you would see smiling faces around a hanging dead body. Those police officers felt so safe, so untouchable, that they felt they would take photographs with our murdered daughters. Those police officers dehumanised our children.
“We’ve been to hell and back again. There is more work to be done. The most important thing is because of the sentencing, we are part of the change that’s going to come in the culture of the police force.”
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