Police officers who took pictures of murdered sisters to appeal the verdicts

Two former police officers who took pictures of murdered sisters at a crime scene they guarded are anchoring their prison sentences.

Deniz Jaffer and Jamie Lewis were jailed for two years and nine months at a hearing last December after pleading guilty to misconduct in a public office.

Police officers were assigned to guard the site after Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman were found dead in bushes in Fryent Country Park, Wembley, in north-west London, in June 2020.

Instead, officers moved from their posts to take ‘inappropriate’ and ‘unauthorized’ photos of the bodies, which were then shared with colleagues and friends on WhatsApp.

Lewis even put his face on top of a picture with the victims in the background, the court heard. He sent the processed image to Jaffer, who forwarded it to a female officer on the spot.

The judge condemned their ‘shocking and unexplained behavior’ and said they were disregarding the victims’ privacy for ‘a cheap thrill’ or ‘a form of bragging’.

Bibaa, 46, and Nicole 27, were killed in a random, horrific attack by Danyal Hussein, 19, who had written a promise in blood to a demon to kill women every six months to win the lottery.

He was sentenced to life in prison, with a minimum term of 35 years, in October after being found guilty of murdering women.

The sisters’ mother, Mina Smallman, described being ‘through hell and back’ after officers were jailed months after the killer.

She said Jaffer and Lewis’ actions were a “betrayal of catastrophic proportions” and an “act of sacrilege”.

In a powerful statement about victim impact, she said: ‘It made me think of the lynchings in the deep southern United States, where one could see smiling faces around a hanging corpse. These police officers felt so safe, so untouchable, that they felt like they wanted to take pictures with our murdered daughters. The police officers dehumanized our children. ‘

Smallman spoke outside court after the sentencing, saying she was “excited” that officers had been jailed and not receiving conditional sentences.

Judge Mark Lucraft sentenced each of the men to two years and nine months in prison.

Jaffer from Hornchurch in East London was 47 when he was imprisoned – Lewis from Colchester, Essex, was 33.

Judges are set to consider their cases at an appeals court hearing in London on Wednesday.

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