Two cops caught snapping selfie-style pics at grisly double murder scene
PCs Deniz Jaffer and Jamie Lewis on trial for misconduct
PC Deniz Jaffer, 47, and PC Jamie Lewis, 33, stood before Judge Mark Lucraft at the Old Bailey on Tuesday charged with gross misconduct. Between 7 and 23 June last year, the pair were guarding the tragic crime scene in Wembley’s Fryent Country Park where sisters Bibaa Henry, 46, and Nicole Smallman, 27, were found dead in bushes.
Shocking breach of cordon to take “unauthorised” photos
Instead of solely protecting the scene, the officers crossed the police cordon and took “inappropriate” pictures of the sisters’ bodies. Jaffer snapped four photos while Lewis took two. One image was even doctored — Lewis’s face was superimposed onto a photo of the victims and shared to a female colleague via WhatsApp.
Arrest and suspension after damning WhatsApp evidence
The duo were arrested following an Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) probe. Both cops admitted entering the crime scene without permission and circulating photos and info via WhatsApp to colleagues and the public. Both work under the Metropolitan Police’s North East command unit and were suspended after their arrest on 22 June last year.
Grieving mother calls officers “despicable”
Sisters’ mum, Mina Smallman, labelled the officers “despicable” and attended the hearing. The jury viewed blacked-out images of the bodies. Jaffer and Lewis arrived at the scene at 3:30am on 8 June and were assigned to the inner cordon near the bodies. However, a female colleague saw them wandering and chatting instead of guarding the spot. She later received the WhatsApp photos from Jaffer.
The Crown Prosecution Service revealed Lewis also shared other crime scene photos with a WhatsApp group of 40+ officers called the “A Team,” while Jaffer sent images of the bodies to three private contacts. The scandal raises serious questions about police conduct at one of London’s darkest crime scenes.
