THEIR STORY

Bibaa Henry and her sister Nicole Smallman were out in a park celebrating Bibaa’s 46th birthday when they were both stabbed to death. Many questions have been raised about the handling of these Black women’s cases. The mother of Nicole and Bibaa voiced her frustrations about the police force’s initial response when the two sisters were first reported missing. The police were slow to act and the family were left to carry out the search for the two sisters themselves. It was Nicole’s boyfriend who found the two women’s bodies. Subsequently, two police officers were arrested on suspicion of misconduct after taking selfies at the murder scene and sharing them with other officers and members of the public. The women’s mother commented “If ever we needed an example of how toxic it has become, those police officers felt so safe, so untouchable, that they felt they could take photographs of dead black girls and send them on. It speaks volumes of the ethos that runs through the Metropolitan police.”