Tag: violence against women

Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman

Bibaa Henry (1974-2020) and Nicole Smallman (1993-2020) were two sisters who were murdered on the 6 June 2020 just hours after the former’s birthday was celebrated. Their killer, Danyal Hussein, was not known to either sisters and targeted them to fulfill a ‘pact with a demon’. After the family grew concerned about their disappearance, they contacted the police. However, according to the mother of the sisters, Rev. Mina Smallman, the police were very negligent in investigating their disappearance, leaving family and friends to look for them themselves. Rev. Smallman believes the reason for this was that they were black and working-class.

Bibaa Henry lived in Brent and worked as a social worker for Buckinghamshire Council. Her father was Herman Henry, a former ABA featherweight champion. Bibaa was known to her colleagues as “a lovely woman who was both serious and fun”, a fierce adovcate of safeguarding children and at-risk families. She would drive children with disabilities to their activities, and sing to them to make it a merry journey.

Nicole Smallman lived in Harrow, and was a freelance photographer who graduated from the University of Westminster. She had a passion for the arts, would make documentaries, sing and act. Her friends described her as “a joy to be around”. Nicole also had a passion for humanitarian and environmental causes. Her parents Christopher and Mina, described her as “a child from the 60s”, beautiful within and out.

Their mother, Mina Smallman – worked as a receptionist, teacher, an assistant principal, and later went into the priesthood. She became the first black female archdeacon for the Church of England, serving as Archdeacon for Southend between 2013 and 2016.

To celebrate Bibaa’s 46th birthday consistent with COVID-19 regulations, the sisters and their friends went to Fryent County Park in Wembley. One of the last photos shows them frolicking with fairy lights in the park. It was moments before they would be attacked, and eventually killed.

When neither of the sisters returned home from the park, Ms. Henry’s friend – Nina Esmat; and Ms. Smallman’s boyfriend, Adam Stone, both became worried. When the phone calls received no response, Mr. Stone contacted the police. He claims that a different person spoke to him every instance he did this. Mr. Stone and Ms. Esmat then resolved to take up searching for Bibba and Nicole themselves – the former with his parents, while the mother of the sisters tried contacting the police again to get them to follow up on when they would initiate the search, and follow up on the attendees of the party.

Agonising hours were spent searching in the park, until Nina Esmat discovered Bibaa’s sunglasses. She feared the worst, and called the police, who told her to take them to the police station. Adam Stone and his father found shoes and a knife respectively in an undergrowth. Upon taking a futher look, Mr. Stone had found his girlfriend and her sister. He screamed and wept upon the sight of their lifeless bodies. Ms. Henry had been stabbed eight times, while Ms. Smallman was stabbed 28 times trying to defend herself.

They were killed by Danyal Hussain, a teenager whose motive for killing them was to fulfill a pact with a demon called “King Lucifuge Rocofale” to reward him with a £321million lottery jackpot if he killed six women every six months. Hussain was referred to the Prevent programme for deradicalisation when he was 15 when he communicated with others online displaying an interest in the far-right and Norse mythology.

Adding to the sense of contempt by police, two police officers were found to have taken selfies with the bodies of Ms Henry and Ms Smallman, and shared them on WhatsApp. The officers were charged with misconduct and an investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) found six more officers under investigation for not reporting and challenging the act.

Danyal Hussain was arrested and charged with two counts of murder on 30th June 2020, appeared before the Old Bailey on 11 March 2021, pleading not guilty; and after a month long trial on the 9th June 2021, was found guilty. He is due to be sentenced in September. Friends and family of the murdered sisters noted his childish and taunting gestures at them.

The family of the sisters are considering suing the Metropolitan Police for misconduct in the handling of their case. Friends and family of the sisters also say that unlike Sarah Everard and other white women murdered by strangers, the public reaction has not been anywhere close. The Rev. Mina Smallman said this on the matter:

 “I think the notion of ‘all people matter’ is absolutely right, but it’s not true. Other people have more kudos in this world than people of colour.

That’s what gives me purpose – if their lives make a change in the way women are viewed, and black women in particular.

In the pecking order of things we are the lowest on the ladder.”

A hearing is due on 12th July 2021, on the two officers charged with misconduct for taking selfies of the bodies of Ms Henry and Ms Smallman.

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Sarah Everard

Sarah Everard (1987-2021) was a marketing executive who was reported missing in Clapham Common on 3 March 2021 after leaving the house of a friend. On the 10th March, her body was discovered near Asford, Kent in a builder’s bag. Wayne Couzens, a police officer – was charged with Everard’s kidnapping and murder, and appeared before the Old Bailey on the 16th March, and pled guilty on July 9th 2021.

Sarah Everard was born in Surrey, and grew up in York, and attended Fulford School. Her former head teacher Steve Lewis described her as a “popular and well-liked member of our community”. She later attended Durham University where she studied Human Geography between 2005 and 2008. She liked running and taking walks – one of the photos from her LinkedIn account was of her receiving a medal in running gear. She lived in Brixton in a flatshare. On the night of her diappearance, she stayed with a friend in Clapham, phoned her boyfriend Josh Lowth and talked to him for 15 minutes and even walked under the lights on her way back to her Brixton flat. It still wasn’t enough to prevent her abduction and eventual murder. She was taken in a rented car, raped and strangled to death by PC Wayne Couzens – a firearms officer.

The disappearance and death of Everard sparked nationwide discussions around the safety of women and girls from violence and harassment. Women shared their experiences of being subject to assault or otherwise being made to feel unsafe by men, and the multiple actions they do in order to ensure their personal safety in outings, and even residencies while alone. Vigils against violence towards women were held on the 13th March 2021 – which the campaign group Reclaim These Streets took a visible role in organising. The vigil held in Clapham Common, organised by direct action group Sisters Uncut, which attracted hundreds of attendees, was met by police brutality against them – ostensibly to enforce the powers given to them by the Coronavirus Act 2020. Four people were arrested.

Sarah Everard was one of nearly 200 women killed by the police, the prison system or in custody. In a speech to the Women’s Institute, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick said this of PC Wayne Couzens actions:

“We recognise we must be – and we are – intolerant of violence against women and girls…I have 44,000 police officers and staff working in the Met. Sadly some are abused at home for example.

And sadly on occasion I have a bad’un. We are intolerant and we set ourselves high standards in how we work to identify, prevent and tackle any such behaviours.”

On the day that PC Wayne Couzans pled guilty to Sarah Everard’s kidnap and rape, Cressida Dick, again, said of Couzans’ crimes:

“They are dreadful and everyone in policing feels betrayed. Sarah was a fantastic, talented young woman with her whole life ahead of her and that has been snatched away.”

These speeches of course did not highlight the women manipulated into sexual relationships by undercover police – a practice that had gone on for decades, and the full exposure of which has yet to reach full disclosure. It also doesn’t recognise the police brutality which occured on the night of the Clapham Common vigil.

Unfortunately, the public outcry from Everard’s murder also highlights the lack of response to BAME women going missing. The mother of Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman – sisters who disappeared, found dead and later police had taken selfies with their bodies and shared them on WhatsApp; said that race played a factor in how much attention her daughters received:

“Other people in this world have more kudos than people of colour.

From my point of view – all women, women of colour, white women – we are on the same journey, we’re on a journey to say that we all matter.”

In response to Sarah Everard’s murder, trials of new laws protecting women against sexual harassment in public are set for Autumn. Sentencing of Wayne Couzans is set for the 9th September 2021.

*Update 1/10/21: cw: rape, violence, murder, racism, homophobia

Further horrific details have come to light on the encounter Sarah Everard had with PC Wayne Couzens and events which led to her death. As she was returning to her flat, Couzens intercepted and then committed a false arrest citing the poers given to him under the Coronavirus Act 2020 and took her into the van he rented – essentially kidnap by cop. Witnesses driving by are said to have assumed that she did something wrong and didn’t intervene. After the abuction, Couzens drove to Kent where the car owned was, then transferred Ms Everard to his vehicle as he drove to a nearby village. Couzans strangled Everard with his hands and belt, raped and murdered her, and then burned her body. At some point before or after her death, Couzens went to a petrol station to purchase a Lucozade and a bottle of water.

The Old Bailey came to learn that Couzens was nicknamed “the rapist” by his fellow officers, had outstanding complaints for flashing, and was reportedly part of a WhatsApp group with other police officers with messages regularly filled with misogyny, racism and homophobia. The five officers alleged to have been involved are said to be under investigation. In light of these details, it is further suspected he may have committed other assaults – even murders.

Couzens was sentenced to life imprisonment on 30th September 2021 – upon the verdict, his employment with the Metropolitan Police was terminated.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick has said “[she] will do everything in her power to ensure any lessons are learned”. She is resisting calls on her to resign.

On 29th September 2021, Sisters Uncut held a protest outside the Old Bailey during Wayne Couzens’ sentencing. They have subsequently announced the launch of Copwatch groups across the UK, and a national training service of intervening during stop-and-searches.

Wayne Couzens was not a “wrong-un” or a “bad apple”. He was part of a violent institution which uses the authority given to them by the state to brutalize women and marginalised people, maintained by “policing by consent”. He was a predatory creature given power to engage in his depraved urges with impunity – under the protection of the institution he served.

In light of this, the case of Kate Wilson, the treatment of Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman and many others, we need to really ask ourselves whether the priority should be empowering the police to “keep women and girls safe”.

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