Judge Jails Teenager Who Made 'Bizarre' Contract With Demon to Minimum of 35 Years Behind Bars
10:25 GMT 28.10.2021 (Updated: 12:27 GMT 01.03.2022)
© Photo : Metropolitan Police / Danyal Hussein
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In June 2020, Nicole Smallman and her sister Bibaa Henry were stabbed to death as they celebrated Bibaa’s birthday in a park in London. The murders took place during the first coronavirus lockdown, when pubs and restaurants were closed.
A teenager has been jailed for life for murdering two sisters after signing a contract with a demon to “sacrifice” women in return for winning a Mega Millions lottery jackpot.
Sentencing Danyal Hussein, 19, to a minimum term of 35 years, Mrs Justice Whipple said the teenager's motivation was "bizarre", but she told him: "You planned these vicious attacks, you intended to kill, you did it for money and in misguided pursuit of power."
Hussein, from Blackheath, south London, was convicted in July of murdering Nicole Smallman, 27, a hospitality industry worker, and her sister Bibaa Henry, 46, a social worker, in Fryent Country Park in northwest London in the early hours of 6 June last year.
Danyal Hussein arrives at the police station after his arrest on 1 July 2020
© Photo : Metropolitan Police
Judge Whipple said: "You had found these two women. You were a stranger to them. You surprised them. You terrified them. You killed them."
Hussein refused to engage with a psychiatrist, Dr Ian Cumming, but the court heard there was no evidence he was mentally ill, although he did have autistic spectrum disorder.
During the sentencing hearing Hussein, appearing on videolink from Belmarsh prison, sat sideways on his chair and stared out of the window.
Afterwards Bibaa and Nicole's mother, Mina Smallman, described it as a "performance" and said: "It was a performance designed to elicit sympathy or to encourage the belief that there's something wrong with him. There's nothing wrong with him. He is just an obnoxious human being."
Earlier, Judge Whipple said of Hussein’s contract with a demon: “Bizarre though that may be as a belief system...it is not in itself proof he is mad...it's just the way he thinks”.
Bibaa Henry and her sister Nicole Smallman took this picture only hours before they were killed
© Photo : Metropolitan Police
When police searched Hussein’s bedroom, they found a handwritten contract with a demon called Lucifuge Rofocale.
Hussein, who signed the "agreement" in his own blood, wrote: “For the Mighty King Lucifuge Rofocale: Perform a minimum of six sacrifices every six months for as long as I am free and physically capable”.
This "contract" was found in Danyal Hussein's bedroom after the murders
© Photo : Metropolitan Police
It went on: "Sacrifice only women, build a temple for you, do everything that I have promised".
As part of the deal, Hussein wrote that he expected to win the “Mega Millions Super Jackpot” and “never be suspected of any crimes by the police”.
Detective Inspector Maria Green said: “Danyal Hussein is a dangerous, arrogant and violent individual who from the outset has shown no remorse or acceptance of his actions."
The killings took place during the first lockdown and, with pubs and restaurants closed, the sisters chose to celebrate Bibaa’s birthday in the park with a group of around 10 friends.
They were “brutally” stabbed to death in the early hours of 6 June 2020 after their friends had left and the pair danced and played with lights in the darkness.
The killer concealed both bodies in the undergrowth and was caught on a neighbour’s CCTV camera returning to his father’s home nearby around 4 a.m.
Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman
© Photo : Metropolitan Police / Bibaa Henry Nicole Smallman
Earlier this week, a report by the Independent Office for Police Conduct found the level of service the police provided over the weekend the sisters went missing was below the standard it should have been, but ruled out any racial bias or actual misconduct.
The Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, who is already under pressure to resign following the conviction of murdering police officer Wayne Couzens, has tried to apologise to the family.
Cressida Dick said: “The way we responded to information that Nicole and Bibaa were missing that weekend was below the standard we should have achieved and compounded the distress felt by their loved ones”.
She added: “We have contacted the family to ask if they will allow me or, if they prefer, another senior officer to visit them at a time that is right to apologise in person”.
But Nicole and Bibaa’s mother, Mina Smallman, rejected the apology.
She said: “Sorry is something you say when you comprehend the wrong you do and take full responsibility for it, demonstrating that by taking appropriate, proportionate action, which to our minds is not going to happen”.
Yet another disgraceful case of Met police negligence where women’s safety is concerned. IPOC wants the Met to apologise for failures around disappearance of Nicole Smallman & Bibaa Henry. They had been stabbed to death, but police inaction multiplied their family’s misery. pic.twitter.com/y4iZvmF7PK
— Diane Abbott MP (@HackneyAbbott) October 26, 2021
“The investigation was not handled appropriately. The apology should have been done face to face and not nearly 10 months later”, Mrs Smallman added.
Prosecutor Oliver Glasgow QC, in his closing speech, told jurors: “Given the weight of the evidence against him, only someone who actually believes that an agreement with a demon will work could refuse to accept any aspect of the case against him”.
“Perhaps he still believes that Lucifuge Rofocale will come to his aid, but unfortunately for the defendant, there are no deals to be had in these courts and the devil (if he is anywhere) is in the detail”, he added.
Hussein, who did not give evidence, claimed he was not the person shown knocking on the door of his father’s home and being let in and claimed it was not him who bought a set of knives in a supermarket a few days before the murders.
