The Danyal Hussein Demon Murders

This bizarre and distressing double murder case was reported here last month. On July 6, Hussein was convicted of both murders. Almost at once, withheld videos were uploaded to YouTube, including this one of his actual arrest by a group of police who held him at taserpoint. The American police routinely handcuff all suspects behind their backs; the British police don’t, but they made an exception for Hussein, who was still handcuffed at the police station.

So how did this insanity come about? On June 5 last year, Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman threw a party in Fryent Country Park, a large open space in Wembley, North London. It was Bibaa’s forty-sixth birthday;  Nicole was twenty-seven; the two women were half-sisters, and appear to have been close. The party went on very late, and it was well after midnight when they were alone, dancing by fairy lights, that Hussein struck. Their bodies were found in a hedge, along with the murder weapon.

According to their mother in this ITV interview, Nicole was stabbed or slashed 38 times; many of her wounds were defensive. (She actually suffered 28 wounds; her sister was stabbed 8 times). Hussein was arrested at his home in Blackheath, South London in the early hours of July 1; he appeared in court the following day charged with both murders and possessing an offensive weapon. He was eighteen years old at the time.

Hussein’s arrest wasn’t the first in this case. In what can only be described as incredibly bad taste, two constables – PC Deniz Jaffer and PC Jamie Lewis – posed for “selfies” with the bodies and shared them on social media. They had been assigned to protect the crime scene. Both men are from Essex – there must be a joke there somewhere. Their cases are proceeding. Unsurprisingly and disgustingly, the usual suspects had to make that about race.

In spite of the overwhelming evidence against him, Hussein pleaded not guilty, which necessitated a trial. This was held at the Central Criminal Court from June 7 where even with the enormity of his crime he was small potatoes considering some of the monsters who have stood trial there, including Christie of Rillington Place fame, and much more recently, Levi Bellfield.

Opening the case for the prosecution, Oliver Glasgow QC said a combination of forensics and CCTV were the main evidence, but Hussein had also bought a set of knives, and the day after the murders, he attended hospital with cuts to his hand. This is not uncommon with a frenzied knife attack. But the most bizarre piece of evidence if not the most damning was a handwritten note found in his bedroom. It was addressed to a demon promising to sacrifice women to…win the lottery. Three lottery tickets were found folded inside the note.

Here is the actual note; it can be magnified with a click of the mouse. And here is the demon concerned, for what it is worth. Horrific though this story is, we should be grateful for one thing, as can be seen, Hussein had intended to “sacrifice” six women every six months. What if he hadn’t been caught so soon?

Another note was addressed to Queen Byleth, who appears to be a modern fantasy character. Hussein wanted her to make a girl he knew fall in love with him.

Hussein’s Counsel elected not to put him on the stand, which barring exceptional circumstances is more or less an admission of guilt, and these were not exceptional circumstances, bizarre in the extreme for sure, but not exceptional. The only alternative would have been to put on a so-called expert witness to testify that Hussein was suffering from that old chimera, mental illness, but evil isn’t an illness, even evil compounded with delusion.

After his inevitable conviction, it was reported he had been determined to be vulnerable to radicalisation and violent extremism at the age of 15, and that he had been referred to the Prevent scheme by his school. It was also reported that since his arrest, Hussein had carried out other research on-line, which begs the question, since when were remand prisoners on murder charges allowed Internet access, and if so under what conditions?

During the trial, a juror was discharged after having tested positive for Covid-19. As for Hussein, he will be sentenced in September, and the chances of him being discharged before Halley’s Comet returns in 2061 are slim indeed.