A Metropolitan police officer jailed for sharing photographs of two murdered sisters boasted of covering up crime in racist WhatsApp messages.
Deniz Jaffer claimed that police had let off three “white fellas” suspected of assaulting a group of Asian men, whom he described using the racial slur “Pakkis”.
He said that the Met would not contact the Asian victims, but would close the case using the justification that they were unwilling to cooperate.
The boast is the latest twist in a case that led to a public outcry after Jaffer, 47, and his colleague Jamie Lewis, 33, took photographs of Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman, who had been brutally stabbed to death.
The officers had been sent to guard the bodies but took photographs that were sent to colleagues and friends outside the force. Lewis superimposed his own face onto one of the images.
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The pair, who referred to the women as “two dead birds”, were jailed last week for two years and nine months. Smallman, 27, was stabbed 28 times and Henry, 46, suffered six stab wounds after they were set upon in Fryent Country Park by Danyal Hussein in June last year.
A report by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), seen by The Times, contains more revelations about the behaviour of Jaffer, who resigned from the Met in the summer, and Lewis, who was dismissed last month.
Jaffer deleted the images from his phone the day that Lewis was questioned by the IOPC. When interviewed, Jaffer claimed that he took the photographs to “cover his arse” as he was concerned that the bodies had not been covered up by scenes of crime officers. He also claimed that he sent the images to friends on a WhatsApp group named covid c***s to warn them about the potential dangers in society. In one exchange with the group, Jaffer offered to send the photos and said the scene was bad but “I’ve seen worse”. An unnamed person in the group replied: “Send ’em over Den.”
The IOPC report said Jaffer’s phone content contained “numerous incidences of race discrimination and racist language” between June 8 and 22.
On June 13, five days after taking the photographs of the sisters, Jaffer posted in the WhatsApp group about a separate incident. He wrote: “Five pakkis. Two with bloody nose and the other three ran off but their car has been seized.” He also stated: “Three white fellas arrested for ABH but we have had a chat off the record. We will release them under investigation and close it later saying victim unwilling without contacting the pakkis.” Jaffer described it to the IOPC as “idle chit chat” and gossip at the police station.
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The Met said its directorate of professional standards had investigated the reference to the alleged incident in Jaffer’s message but “nothing was found to corroborate the arrests or that the incident had happened”.
Sentencing Jaffer and Lewis at the Old Bailey last week, Judge Mark Lucraft said: “The two of you not only violated the police cordon with the effect that had on the investigation, but then wholly disregarded the privacy of the two victims of horrific violence and their families for what can only have been some cheap thrill, kudos, or some form of bragging right by taking images and then passing them to others.”
