Yahoo Finance Clear instructions over bodies left in bushes, forensics expert tells court
“Clear” instructions were given that no-one should enter bushes containing the bodies of two sisters as the crime scene was guarded by police overnight, a court has heard.
Bibaa Henry, 46, and Nicole Smallman, 27, were killed in a frenzied knife attack in Fryent Country Park in Wembley, north-west London, early on June 6 last year.
Ms Smallman’s distraught boyfriend found their bodies concealed in a small copse of bushes the following day and alerted police.
Teenager Danyal Hussein, who allegedly made a pact with a demon to “sacrifice” women to win the lottery, is on trial at the Old Bailey accused of their murders.
On Monday, operational forensic manager Brian Multaney said he went into the thicket where the bodies were up to five times on June 7.
Recap: Teenager arrested on suspicion of Wembley sister murders
He had been accompanied by seven others who were identified as police officers, a forensic practitioner and a pathologist, jurors heard.
The bodies were left in situ overnight so specialist scientists could examine the scene further for possible hairs and fibres the next day.
The witness told jurors there was always a chance that vermin could disturb the scene at night before the team resumed work in the morning.
Cross-examining, defence lawyer Riel Karmy-Jones QC said: “You leave just after 11pm. Did you have anything to do with officers posted to guard the scene that night?”
Mr Multaney replied: “When we were wrapping up for the evening there was some general conversation had around preserving the scene as it was.
“There certainly were some officers informed that we were going to leave the bodies in situ overnight.
“If there was to be any activity in there – fox, rats whatever – hopefully shining a light would be enough to see off that disturbance.”
Ms Karmy-Jones asked who was in charge between shortly after 11pm and 7.30am the next day when another crime scene manager took over.
Mr Multaney said: “That would have been left to the officers posted around the cordon.”
Asked to give details, he said they were police constables but did not know how many.
Mr Karmy-Jones went on: “You were made aware light imaging specialists were arriving the next day. And so, just to go back to the night, there is no one taking a note of who goes in and out?”
Mr Multaney said: “I believe the instructions were quite clear, there was to be nobody going into that area.”
Ms Karmy-Jones observed: “You believe the instructions were quite clear but you were not there to monitor activity.”
The witness said: “No, no.”
Hussein, 19, of Guy Barnett Grove, Blackheath, south-east London, has denied double murder and possessing a knife.
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