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

This article contains some content that readers may find disturbing.

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

Mina Smallman told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that she feels “no hatred” towards the man who killed her daughters, Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry.

But he said Metropolitan Police officers who sent photos of their bodies to a WhatsApp group chat had “violated” the victims and for that he had not forgiven them.

“Obviously what they did was not as bad as murder,” Smallman said.

—But you’re telling me that you’ve raped our girls as well?

“That’s why I haven’t forgiven them.”

Ms Smallman said that when the two men were released, she attempted suicide, an incident she describes 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 have tried to commit suicide.”

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

“A lot of it accelerated during lockdown… (young men were 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 a radicalization that is happening among our young people, which fuels the haters to hate even more and gives them the tools to hurt the women in their lives.”

Despite how Metropolitan Police officers treated her daughters, she said she still has faith in the police.

“Most police officers are good people.”

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

Earlier this month, she called for more black officers to be deployed in London, and appeared at the launch of the Alliance for Police Accountability (APA), a group of bodies fighting racism and misogyny in policing.

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

“This reminds me of the day I was told (my daughters) were dead.

Now I cry for them, for us and for the family.

“Your life will never be the same.”

Ms Smallman meets the mother of Sarah Everard, who was raped and murdered by a Metropolitan Police officer.

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

If you have been affected by any of the issues in this story, you can get help and support at BBC Action Line.

Additional reporting by Ruth Comerford.