15 February 2022

Bereaved mother: Met Police boss ‘all about protecting the brand’

15 February 2022

A bereaved mother has accused Dame Cressida Dick of “smokescreening” to protect the Metropolitan Police “brand” over issues with officers sharing highly disturbing messages on WhatsApp.

Mina Smallman told BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour that the outgoing Met Commissioner had implied that harrowing images shared by officers who were supposed to be guarding the scene of the murder of her daughters, Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry, were an isolated issue.

But earlier this month, watchdog the Independent Office for Police Conduct published WhatsApp and Facebook messages exchanged by a separate group of officers based at Charing Cross police station between 2016 and 2018 that included references to domestic violence, rape, violent racism and derogatory terms for gay and disabled people.

Dame Cressida Dick resigned in a shock move last week (Victoria Jones/PA) (PA Wire)

Dame Cressida announced her resignation on February 10.

Ms Smallman said: “People thought I was being overly emotional and criticising the police on an isolated incident, but my instincts told me that that just wasn’t the case.

“Now, if you remember, the photographs of our girls were taken in 2020 and Cressida Dick was on record and said ‘If this is true, it’s appalling’. Blah, blah.

“She already knew that there was an investigation going on… started in 2017 about WhatsApp groups. So she would have known that this wasn’t an isolated incident.”

Ms Smallman added: “When this (Charing Cross) report came out, I thought ‘You knew, you knew, and you were all about protecting the brand’.”

Asked if she felt misled by the Commissioner, she said: “I think she was smokescreening.”

The IOPC report on the Charing Cross officers found that issues with such messages “are not isolated or historic”.

Former archdeacon Ms Smallman met Dame Cressida in the wake of the murders of Ms Smallman and Ms Henry, who were stabbed to death at a birthday celebration in Fryent Country Park, Wembley, north-west London, in June 2020.

Two constables, Deniz Jaffer and Jamie Lewis, had been assigned to guard the scene of the killings, but instead moved from their posts to take photographs of the bodies, which were then shared with colleagues and friends on WhatsApp.

Sisters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman, who were murdered in June 2020 (Victoria Jones/PA) (PA Wire)

One was a “selfie-style” image on which Lewis had superimposed his own face, and the victims were described as “dead birds”.

Initially, Ms Smallman had backed the Commissioner to stay in her job, but told the BBC she became disillusioned after the murder of Sarah Everard and failings being identified in how the Met had dealt with the missing persons report for her daughters.

She said: “Gradually I just began to see and understand that, you know, she was completely ineffectual.

“As a woman, I don’t want to focus on her in that way. It’s the job, it could have been a man, but it happens to be a woman and there’s lots to celebrate about her career.

“But she failed in the key elements of women’s safety, race issues, homophobia – you name it, it’s rife. And not just in the Met.

“So, in the end, I think her position became untenable, completely.”

A Metropolitan Police spokeswoman said: “We have apologised wholeheartedly to Bibaa and Nicole’s family for the actions of Pcs Jaffer and Lewis. Their behaviour is utterly repugnant and horrifying to us all and they are in prison because of it.

Part of rebuilding that trust is owning our failures and telling the public where we have got it wrong and what we are doing about it

“The Met has been rocked by a series of awful events, including the appalling behaviour displayed by officers at Charing Cross police station, which we know have deeply damaged the trust and confidence people have in us. We are working very hard to rebuild that trust.

“Part of rebuilding that trust is owning our failures and telling the public where we have got it wrong and what we are doing about it. The Independent Office for Police Conduct and others thoroughly scrutinise our actions.

“The commissioner has asked Baroness Louise Casey to lead an independent and far-reaching review into our culture and standards of professional and personal behaviour. The review will ask difficult questions to ensure there are lasting improvements to the service we provide for all Londoners.

“While this process is ongoing we recognise that we need to take urgent action to improve.

“We have already boosted the number of investigators in our professional standards department to strengthen our capability to root out people who abuse their positions of trust.”

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