LONDON, Oct 26 — UK police will apologise to the family of two sisters stabbed to death in a London park after a watchdog slammed delays in reacting to their disappearance and searching for them.
The handling by London’s Metropolitan Police of the case of Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry, two black women, has prompted public anger and claims of racial bias.
Two officers have been criminally charged with misconduct in a public office after allegedly sharing selfies taken with their bodies.
Recent high-profile violent crimes against women in the British capital have undermined public confidence in the force, known as the Met, prompting calls for its female head to resign.
The Met said late Monday that it would “apologise to the family of Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry for the way we responded when the sisters were reported missing”.
This came after the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said the level of service it had offered was “unacceptable”.
Smallman, a 27-year-old freelance photographer, and Henry, a 46-year-old social worker, were killed in June last year as they celebrated Henry’s birthday with a nocturnal picnic.
A 19-year-old man was convicted of murder in July after telling the court he had made a pact with “a demon”.
The women were reported missing by friends and relatives, but police officers failed to properly record and act on this information.
As a result, the sisters’ family and friends went out to search themselves and the next day found their bodies in the park.
Meanwhile, after a separate allegation of impropriety, the two officers were charged in April over photographs allegedly taken of the victims at the murder scene and shared with colleagues.
Some have questioned whether the police response was delayed because the women were black.
However, the IOPC determined that failings were not due to “stereotyping or biased assumptions based on the sisters’ race”.
Commissioner Cressida Dick, the head of the Met, said that the police actions were “below the standard we should have achieved”.
She offered to visit the women’s family in person to apologise.
The women’s mother Mina Smallman, a retired priest, has dismissed an apology, telling Channel 4 News: “The time for apologies has long gone.” — AFP
