Mina Smallman: I have forgiven the murderer of my two daughters

This article contains content that readers may find disturbing.

The mother of two murdered sisters says she has forgiven the killer but not the two police officers who took photos of their bodies.

Mina Smallman told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that she does not feel “hatred” towards the man who murdered her daughters, Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry.

However, she said the Met Police officers who sent pictures of their bodies to a WhatsApp group chat were “assaulting” the victims – and she has not forgiven them for that.

“What they did was clearly not as bad as murder,” Ms Smallman told the Today Programme’s Emma Barnett.

“But you’re telling me you further violated our girls?

“That’s why I didn’t forgive them.”

Ms. Smallman said she attempted suicide when the two men were released. She describes the incident in her book, A Better Tomorrow: Life Lessons in Hope and Strength.

“I just thought, ‘I don’t want to be here.’

“I’ve had enough. And yes – I tried to commit suicide.”

Ms Smallman, a women’s safety campaigner, said police must take the online, misogynist radicalisation of young men more seriously.

“During the lockdown, a lot has happened… (young men have been exposed) to dialogues suggesting that if you can’t get a girlfriend, it’s because women have become more dominant and men have lost their place in society.”

“This is the radicalization that our young men are going through. It fuels the hatred among these haters and gives them the means to hurt the women in their lives.”

Despite the way her daughters were treated by Met Police officers, she says she still has faith in the police.

“Most police officers are good people.”

But she added that the Met needed reform and was therefore “working with the authorities to ensure we have the police force we deserve”.

Earlier this month, she called for more black officers in London. She attended the launch of the Alliance for Police Accountability (APA), a group of organisations that fights racism and misogyny within the police.

Commenting on the recent crossbow attack that killed Carol, Hannah and Louise Hunt, the wife and two daughters of BBC presenter John Hunt, Ms Smallman said she was “grieving again”.

“It takes me back to the day I was told (my daughters) were dead.

“Now I mourn, for them, for us and for the family.

“Their lives will never be the same again.”

Mrs Smallman knows the mother of Sarah Everard, who was raped and murdered by a police officer.

“When I talk to these mothers, they are so broken, really broken. And they are grateful to me, because they know I am talking about all of us.”

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