Two Metropolitan Police officers have appeared in court charged with sharing photographs of two murdered sisters while at the crime scene in Kingsbury.
Pc Deniz Jaffer, 47, of Hornchurch, and Pc Jamie Lewis, 32, of Colchester, Essex, appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Thursday (May 27) charged with misconduct in a public office between June 7 and June 23 last year.
The officers, both of the North East Command Unit, had been assigned to protect the scene after Nicole Smallman, 27, and Bibaa Henry, 46, were stabbed to death at Fryent Country Park in the early hours of June 6.
Social worker Ms Henry, from Brent, and photographer Ms Smallman, who lived in Harrow, had met friends the previous evening to celebrate Ms Henry’s birthday.
Jaffer appeared in the dock wearing a blue sweater over a checked shirt and black facemask, next to Lewis, dressed in a smart dark suit with a waistcoat over a white shirt and burgundy tie.
Both confirmed their names, addresses and dates of birth during the brief hearing.
The charge, which was not read out in court, states each officer “misconducted” himself “in a way which amounted to an abuse of the public’s trust in the office holder by without authorisation, entering a crime scene he had been assigned to protect, sending information about his attendance at the scene to members of the public via WhatsApp and taking photographs of the crime scene”.
Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring sent the case to the Old Bailey on June 24, where the officers will be expected to formally enter pleas.
Jaffar and Lewis were both granted unconditional bail.
The pair were arrested as part of a criminal investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) watchdog into allegations they took “non-official and inappropriate photographs” of the crime scene before sharing them on WhatsApp.
Jaffer and Lewis were both suspended from duty following their arrests on June 22 last year and charged last month.
The watchdog is also carrying a separate inquiry into how the Met handled calls from worried relatives and friends of missing Ms Smallman and Ms Henry before their bodies were discovered on June 7.
Danyal Hussein, 19, of Guy Barnett Grove, Blackheath, is facing trial at the Old Bailey in June, accused of the sisters’ murders.
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