Metropolitan Police serving the greater London area issued an apology to Mina Smallman, the mother of Bibaa Henry, 46, a social worker, and Nicole Smallman, 27, a freelance photographer, both of whom were killed while celebrating Henry's 46th birthday at a park, the BBC reports.

The assailant, Danyal Hussein, who was 18 at the time when he killed the two sisters, made an alleged pact with the devil to kill women in return for winning the lottery, according to Sky News. He was found guilty of murder at an Old Bailey trial in July and will be sentenced at a later date.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) reported that on the evening of June 6, the Met Police were notified repeatedly with calls from the victim's family and friends, to no avail.

According to Sky News, "The agency found that the duty inspector decided to close the police logs, a staff member did not accurately record information surrounding Ms. Smallman's believed whereabouts and police resources were not deployed until mid-morning on 7 June."

From IOPC's investigation, it was revealed the call handler called a missing person a "suspect" and was nonchalant with one of the sisters' friends. Disheartened with the lack of interest from the police, loved ones assembled their own search party. Unfortunately, Nicole's boyfriend of six years, Adam Stone, found the bodies of the two sisters 36 hours after their death, according to BBC.

"There seemed to be no sense of urgency. … We had to track down who was at the picnic, and then it kind of spiraled into your worst nightmare," Mina said to IVT News.

Commissioner Cressida Dick, head of the London police department, admitted, "If we had responded better, we may have saved their friends and family immeasurable pain," CBS News reports. She went on to say, "I am very sorry that the level of service we provided fell short."

Dick intends to visit the victim's family to apologize in person. However, on the heels of the police's apology, the family suffered another blow when two British police officers admitted to a judge that they shared photographs of the two victims on WhatsApp. 

Officers Deniz Jaffer, 47, and Jamie Lewis, 32, were assigned to the crime scene and decided to take photographs and share them on social media, according to the BBC. The Central Criminal Court revealed that Jaffer took four pictures and Lewis took two, CBS News reports.

"Lewis edited one of the pictures by superimposing his own face onto the photograph with the victims in the background. … He sent the resulting image to Jaffer, who then forwarded it unsolicited to a female officer also present at the scene," prosecutors said.

Both disgraced officers admitted to their professional misconduct. Judge Mark Lucraft issued conditional bail for them and the two officers will be sentenced in December.

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