The PM news programme on BBC Radio 4 this afternoon stopped me in my tracks when Mina Smallman, the mother of sisters Nicole Smallman and Bibba Henry, spoke powerfully to Martin Bashir about the allegation that two police officers took selfies with the women's bodies when they were supposed to be protecting the crime scene in Fryent Country Park. She also questioned the 36 hour delay in the police launching a hunt for the two women when they were reported missing.
She said:
Those police officers dehumanised our children. They were nothing to them and what's worse they sent [the photographs] on to members of the public.
This has taken our grief to another level. If ever we needed to understand that institutional racism within the police force, and other institutions, the Church of England, education..If ever we need an example of how toxic it has become: the police officers felt so safe, so untouchable, that they felt they could take photographs of dead black girls and send them on.
The full 8 minute interview is on BBC Sounds here:
Channel 4 Report including Dawn Butler MP (Labour, Brent Central) Interview