Cops Guarding a Murder Scene Took Victims' Pictures Instead

In what the Guardian calls "the scandal that rocked Britain's largest force," two London cops who shared photos of two murdered sisters have been sentenced to two years and nine months in prison. Deniz Jaffer, 47, and Jamie Lewis, 33, of the Metropolitan Police had been stationed at the scene at Fryent Country Park in the city's Brent borough on June 7, 2020, tasked with guarding the bodies of Nicole Smallman, 27, and Bibaa Henry, 46, who'd been stabbed to death. Instead, the court heard during their criminal trial, the officers snapped photos of the slain siblings, then shared them on WhatsApp with co-workers and friends, per the Independent.

Jaffer is said to have taken the photos, then sent four of them to Lewis, who inserted his face into one of the photos showing the two bodies before posting it on WhatsApp. In one photo he sent, Lewis wrote, "Unfortunately I'm sat next to two dead birds full of stab wounds," per the Guardian. "The offending [officers] stripped Ms. Henry and Ms. Smallman of dignity in death," said prosecutor Joel Smith in court Monday at the Old Bailey of Jaffer and Lewis, who pleaded guilty to misconduct in public office last month. "That factor is more weighty given that the offenders were charged with protecting their bodies." Judge Mark Lucraft agreed, calling the defendants' conduct "appalling and inexplicable," per the Independent.

The women's mother said in court her daughters had been "dehumanized," per the Guardian. In addition to their prison sentence, the two men have been terminated from the police force and can't ever serve as police officers again. Meanwhile, the defense team for the women's murderer, Danyal Hussein, saw an opening and tried to use the officers' actions to claim the crime scene had been contaminated, claiming that Jaffer and Lewis would have had to trample into the bush where the bodies were found to capture the photos. No dice for Hussein, however: He was sentenced to life in prison in October for the murders, per the BBC. (More London Metropolitan Police stories.)