The ‘Lottery Killer’ who murdered two sisters in a demonic deal to win the jackpot

The ‘Lottery Killer’ who murdered the daughters of a pioneering cleric in a demonic pact to win a multi million pound jackpot has been jailed for at least 35 years.

Danyal Hussein, 19, promised the sacrifice of six women in six months to scoop the Mega Millions Super Jackpot and made Bibaa Henry, 46, and Nicole Smallman, 27, his first victims.

The sisters were enjoying a lockdown party to celebrate Ms Henry’s birthday in Fryent Country Park, Wembley, northwest London on June 6 last year as Hussein watched them from the undergrowth.

After the other guests had drifted away in the early hours he sprang from the darkness with a carving knife to kill first Ms Henry and then her sister in a ‘celebration of death.’

Ms Henry was taken by surprise and had no chance to defend herself.

When her younger sister put up a desperate struggle Hussein took revenge in a ‘frenzied and relentless’ attack, stabbing her 29 times.

He dragged both bodies into the undergrowth and cleared away the picnic blankets and cushions in an attempt to cover up what he had done.

But he had been badly cut in the attack and dripped blood on to the bodies of both women and their belongings.

Police believe Hussein would have gone on to kill more women if he had not injured his hand.

Concerned friends had raised the alarm when Ms Henry, a social worker, and Ms Smallman, a bar worker, did not answer their phones on the morning after the party.

They were angry when police did not begin looking for the women and launched their own search of the park.

Within minutes they found the women’s sunglasses and the murder weapon in the grass.

Adam Stone, Ms Smallman’s partner, then fell to his knees screaming when he discovered the two entwined bodies of the women in the undergrowth.

CCTV footage showed Hussein leaving the park and arriving back at his father’s home nearby.

In his bedroom police found the contract he had written out for the demon, signed in his own blood, complete with three lottery tickets.

The sisters’ mother, Mina Smallman, was the Church of England’s first female archdeacon from a black or minority ethnic background.

She was outraged by the slow response to the murder and has said she is ‘convinced’ her daughters’ race played a role in the slow investigation into their deaths.

A report by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) on the service provided by the Met found it was ‘below the standard that it should have been’.

Hussein denied but was convicted of two charges of murder and possessing an offensive weapon by an Old Bailey jury in July after a month-long trial.

Riel Karmy-Jones, QC, defending, told the court that Hussein was just two weeks past his 18th birthday when he committed the murders.

‘As those of us who passed that age know that turning 18 is not like crossing the road or falling off a cliff whereby if you reach the other side you are a mature adult,’ said the barrister.

Ms Karmy-Jones said Hussein had a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder and the psychiatric points to the possibility of the other mental health issues ‘running in tandem’ with it.

‘We hope that with some time and perhaps some treatment that the victims’ family, the family of these two women who were tragically lost, they may get some answers as to his motivation,” she added.

Hussein, who appeared in court via videolink from a suite in maximum-security Belmarsh prison, squatted on a chair and seemed to disengaged during the hearing.

The unshaven double killer, who now has long curly hair, was wearing grey tracksuit bottoms and a grey Puma sweatshirt.

Mrs Justice Whipple said Hussein was appearing on a videolink for ‘covid related reasons’

He sat with his chair turned away from the screen as the judge sentenced him to life detention and ordered he serve at least 35 years before he can be considered for parole.

She said Hussein dragged both women into the bushes after murdering them.

‘Then you positioned them in an embrace, so as to defile them in death and to attempt to conceal what you had done.’

Referring to Mr Stone finding the two entwined bodies of the women in the undergrowth, the judge said:

‘What a horrifying sight it was for him.

‘Those images remain forged in his mind.’

Reading from Mr Stone’s statement Mrs Justice Whipple said: ‘I will never be able to unsee what I saw.’

Hussein showed no trace of emotion as he was sentenced and twiddled with his thumbs throughout the judge’s remarks.

The killer lived with his mother at Guy Barnett Grove, Eltham, but also visited his father who lived in Old Kenton Lane near the park.

Hussein was obsessed with the idea of becoming a multi-millionaire and believed the only way to do it was to strike a pact with a demon by becoming a serial killer.

He had also been referred to anti-radicalisation programmes including Prevent while he was attending Thomas Tallis secondary school in Kidbrooke.

On June 3 he bought the Taylor’s Eye knife block containing the murder weapon from Asda on Edgware Road and returned to shop later that night to buy a roll of gaffer tape.

On that day he ordered two military style excavating shovels from Amazon and a face mask.

On June 5 he collected those orders from an Amazon locker at Morrisons on the Edgware Road, put them in his rucksack and went to the park, arriving 45 minutes after the sisters shortly before 9pm.

The last picture taken by the sisters was at 1.13am and it is likely that Hussein had been stalking and watching them for several hours before he leapt from the undergrowth.

Mr Glasgow said their last moments would have been ‘utterly terrifying’ knowing they were about to be murdered but unarmed and unable to fight back.

CCTV from the park entrances led police to Hussein and at his mother’s house laid out on a glass table they found his ‘twisted contract’.

It read: ‘Agreement for the lucifuge rofocale (corr).

‘Perform a minimum of 6 sacrifices every six months for as long as I am free and physically capable.

‘Sacrifice only women, build a temple for you do everything that I have promised for me win the Mega Millions Super Jackpot to…receive fruitful rewards.

‘In return for the future sacrifices I make to you, the rewards could consist of Wealth and power.’

He had signed the single word ‘Danyal’ in his own blood.

Inside the contract were three lottery tickets he bought on June 7 – the day the woman’s bodies were found.

The teenager had carried on buying lottery tickets up until two days before his arrest on July 1, purchasing Lotto Draw, Thunderball and Euromillions tickets.

When he was arrested Hussein made no comment and refused to give a blood sample thinking that was the only way he could be matched to his bloodstains at the scene.

He was horrified when he was told by the police the DNA sample taken from his cheek was enough to prove he was the killer.

Police found he carried a homemade duct tape wallet with several ‘contracts.’

One was a ‘blood offering’ to make a girl at his school fall in love with him.

Hussein, of Guy Barnett Grove, Eltham, denied but was convicted of two counts of murder and possession of an offensive weapon.

He did not give evidence but his lawyers claimed that the CCTV footage of him at the park, in Asda, Morrisons and outside his father’s home showed someone else who just happened to look very similar to him.

In a ‘preposterous’ defence case they suggested the bloodstains were not his – or if they were, they had been transferred to the scene by ‘foxes and rabbits’.

It was even claimed that the ‘contract’ had been written by someone else – signed in Hussein’s blood, and then planted in the bedroom.

Mrs Justice Whipple told Hussein: ‘In the early hours of the morning of Saturday June 06 2020 you murdered Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry.

‘The two sisters had been celebrating Bibaa’s birthday with a group of friends.

‘The evening was warm and the group had met at Fryent Country Park in west London.

‘The friends had gone home, leaving Bibaa and Nicole at the park.’

The court heard that the two sisters drank wine, played with fairy lights and posted one final picture together.

‘At 1:26 that morning Bibaa’s phone was locked as though someone without the code tried to access it.

‘That was you trying to access the phone.

‘You had found these women, you were a stranger to them to them.

‘You surprised them, you terrified them, and you killed them,’ said the judge.

‘Both women died from stab wounds.

‘The injuries inflicted on them were appalling.

‘Bibaa probably died first, suffering eight stab wounds. There was no sign that she tried to fight off her assailant.

‘Nicole probably died second.

‘She suffered 40 stab wounds and incisions. She had wounds to her right hand and left arm that showed she had tried to fight you off.

‘In that fight, your own right hand was seriously cut. She could not save herself or her sister from you.

‘You dragged both women by the feet into bushes nearby.

‘Their backs were covered with abrasions where you had dragged them, dead, along the ground.

‘Then you positioned their bodies in an embrace. This was to defile these women in death and to attempt to conceal what you had done,’ said Mrs Justice Whipple.

‘The bodies of these two women were not discovered until the morning of Sunday 7 June 2020.

‘By then, friends of the two women were looking for them and their close circle were very worried about them.

‘It was Adam Stone, Nicole’s boyfriend, who found their bodies.

‘What a horrifying sight he encountered.

‘His victim impact statement talks of the ongoing mental torment, the trauma, and the images from 7th June.

‘He says those images remain forged in his mind: “I will never be able to un-see what I saw”.

‘His and other victim impact statements, from Bibaa’s father, aunt and daughter, and from Wilhelmina, known as Mina, mother of both girls, speak of the agony of loss of these beautiful and gifted women.

‘The lives of these family members have been shattered.

‘Mina talks of this “nightmare”, of the impact on every day since then, of the horror of knowing the details of how they died, of having to put grief on hold because of this trial, and of being haunted by the knowledge of her children’s suffering: “I think that will disturb me for the rest of my life”.

‘To lose two treasured family members and friends in this way is unimaginable.

‘But you made that loss worse by your refusal to acknowledge your actions.

‘You made those family members and friends sit through day after day of evidence at this trial; you admitted nothing.

‘So the Court was subjected to lengthy evidence about your careful planning, about the extensive wounds inflicted by you causing death, about your efforts to hide the bodies and cover your actions, and about your apparent nonchalance after the murders.’

The judge said the murders had been ‘meticulously planned’ and Hussein had gone through great lengths to cover his tracks.

Referring to Hussein’s ‘pact’ with the ‘demon’ he called ‘the mighty King Lucifage Rofocale’, the judge said: ‘I am sure that you performed these murders as part of that bargain which you thought would bring you wealth and power.

‘Well, the wealth and power did not arrive; and nor did it happen that the police never found out about your crimes.

‘Your DNA was all over the crime scene, there was a vast amount of CCTV to track you and other evidence to prove it was you, and your motivation became clear from the items
found at your mother’s house.

‘You were tracked down and your plan failed.

‘Bizarre though your pact with the devil may appear to others, this was your belief system, your own commitment to the murder of innocent women.’

The judge, who had ordered a psychiatric report prior to sentence, said that the killer’s culpability was not reduced by any mental illness.

‘There was no medical evidence put before the Court to explain your actions at trial.

‘That was at your own insistence because your defence was that you were not there.

‘That precluded any possibility of a psychiatric defence, which would have to be based on an acceptance that it was you who killed these women,’ she added.

Mrs Justice Whipple thanked the sisters’ family for the ‘quiet dignity’ they had shown throughout the trial, adding ‘no family should have to endure this’.

Hussein, who had been squatting on a chair for most of the hearing in the video booth in Belmarsh, petulantly turned to face away from the camera during the judge’s remarks.

Speaking after Danyal Hussein was jailed for at least 35 years for murdering her two daughters Mina Smallman said: ‘I think you have heard me say in the past there will be no celebrations here but justice has been done.

 

‘I think it is very disrespectful to say that children cannot tell the difference between good and evil.

‘That is something else I will be campaigning against.

‘Today we are celebrating what is wonderful about the Metropolitan Police.’

But Ms Smallman, who earlier this week rejected the Met’s apology over failings in how it responded to the missing persons investigation, said: ‘We do have a problem. We do have an underground that is infiltrating and growing in our Metropolitan Police. I want to say thank you to this team who worked tirelessly to find the killer.

‘I want to thank the media for finally getting our story, for understanding why everybody is important.

‘The last few weeks have been very difficult for me. They have triggered my ailments.

‘I only want to speak when I feel I’m doing it justice. Thank you all for being here and caring.’

Speaking about Bibaa and Nicole she said: ‘They were beautiful girls to look at anyway but they were real people with hearts.

‘Bibaa has left behind a daughter who has given birth to a son in the last year.

‘Life is going on, there is a legacy.

‘Nicole I think we grieved more for her because there was 20 years difference. She had 20 years less. To know her was to love her.

‘Lots and lots of families have given tribute to Bibaa because she was an amazing social worker. She would never take a child away unless she tried everything.

‘I am really really proud of them.’

Asked about Hussein, she said: ‘It is all a performance. There is nothing you can’t tell me about any boys and that is a performance designed to elicit sympathy or to have a belief that there is some really wrong with him. There is nothing wrong with him. He is just an obnoxious human being.

‘He is a broken human being who, if he had not been caught, for other families they would have been suffering what we have. Well he ain’t out there now.

‘In 35 years’ time they won’t let him out. I won’t let them.’

Detective Inspector Maria Green, from the Specialist Crime Command, said: ‘Danyal Hussein is a dangerous, arrogant and violent individual who from the outset has shown no remorse or acceptance of his actions.

‘The sentence handed down by the court today is a reflection of the seriousness of his crimes. I hope that knowing he will now spend many years behind bars will bring a small degree of comfort to Bibaa and Nicole’s loved ones.

‘This has been a shocking and chilling case and I know the investigation will stay with all of those involved for a long time to come.

‘Hussein went out that night with the intention of killing in order to satisfy his bizarre fantasies under the deluded belief he would be rewarded with financial prosperity. His wicked acts have cut short the lives of two completely innocent women who were simply celebrating a birthday.

‘The senselessness of Hussein’s actions has made it all the more difficult for Bibaa and Nicole’s loved ones to come to terms with their loss. Despite this, throughout our investigation and the subsequent trial, they have shown the utmost dignity and strength in the most unimaginable of circumstances.

‘My thoughts and those of my colleagues are always with them.’