The mother of two sisters stabbed to death in a park says she believes the fact they were black women meant there was no urgency by police investigating their disappearance.

Mina Smallman, from Ramsgate, admits she is “broken beyond words” at their deaths and feels let down by the Metropolitan Police.

Her daughters Nicole Smallman, 27, and Bibaa Henry, 46, were found dead in Fryent Country Park in Brent, London, on June 7 last year.

They had been celebrating Bibaa’s birthday the previous evening and were reported missing, but Mrs Smallman told the BBC that police were slow to investigate at first.

Instead, she said the family launched their own search which eventually led to the sisters’ bodies being found.

It bears a noticeable difference to the disappearance of Sarah Everard on March 3, which sparked a huge police response, leading to the discovery of her body in Ashford a week later.

Met Police officer Wayne Couzens, from Deal, has been charged with her kidnap and murder.

'I think the notion of ‘all people matter’ is absolutely right, but it’s not true' - Mina Smallman

Mrs Smallman told the BBC that Miss Everard’s death took her and husband Chris “back in time emotionally”.

“I know what the parents will be going through and it is a hell,” she said.

After the deaths of Nicole and Bibaa, an investigation was launched into the behaviour of two police officers over allegations they took and shared photographs of themselves with the women’s bodies when they should have been securing the scene.

“You can’t begin to understand what it is to lose a child under those circumstances and then to have a further betrayal by the very organisation who is paid and we have an agreement with that they will protect us and they will honour us and behave in a way that gives our deceased dignity,” said Mrs Smallman.

She said she is convinced that the fact her daughters were two black women played a part in what she believes was a lack of urgency in searching for them when the alarm was first raised about their disappearance.

“I think the notion of ‘all people matter’ is absolutely right, but it’s not true,” she said.

“If your child goes missing you deserve the people who are paid to do that job to find out what has happened.

“I think there are two sides to me, there is mum and then there’s activist who’s always stood up for people who are not treated fairly.

“As mum I am broken beyond words.

“It’s hard to maintain that focus of trying, wanting some good to come out of it, something to be learned.

“That’s what gives me purpose - if their lives make a change in the way women are viewed, and black women in particular, because in the pecking order of things we are the lowest on the ladder.”

Dame Cressida Dick, commissioner of the Met Police, said the Independent Office for Police Conduct is currently looking at the actions of police when Bibaa and Nicole were reported missing, following a referral from the Met Police Service’s Directorate of Professional Standards.

Danyal Hussein, 18, was arrested on July 1 and charged the next day with the murder of the sisters and possession of an offensive weapon.

He appeared at the Old Bailey on March 11 and pleaded not guilty to all three counts.

A pre-trial review is being held on May 19 and a trial date has been set for June 7.

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