A teenager who murdered two sisters in a London park after making a Satanic blood pact has been sentenced to 35 years in jail.

Danyal Hussein, 19, fatally stabbed Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman in June last year.

On Thursday, he appeared by video link from Belmarsh high security jail to be sentenced.

He was handed two life sentences in prison, with a minimum term of 35 years, to be served at the same time.

His lawyer Riel Karmy-Jones QC did not ask for a delay in the hearing, despite a psychiatric report inviting further assessment.

Hussein had denied the murders, claiming it was not him, and no defence of diminished responsibility was put forward.

But following a trial in July, a jury found Hussein guilty of two counts of murder and possession of a knife.

Mrs Justice Whipple told the court: ‘He has chosen his course and the consequences must follow.’

At the sentencing hearing, Prosecutor Oliver Glasgow QC said that Hussein would qualify for a whole-life order, meaning he would die behind bars, if it wasn’t for his age.

He suggested the appropriate starting point for a minimum term was 30 years in jail.

He said ‘significant’ aggravating features included taking a knife to the scene, destruction of evidence, and disposal of Hussein’s weapon and clothes.

He added that Hussein had failed to co-operate with experts preparing reports and the only relevant diagnosis was for autism.

Hussein has maintained he was not the killer and never wrote a pact with a demon.

But Mr Glasgow said his crimes were ‘a product of his belief in Satanism and his belief you could enter into a bargain with a devil’.

‘That belief system is something he researched for some time’, he said.

Aside from the horror of the agreement, Mr Glasgow said it was ‘logical from the way he approached it and set out what he wanted to do and why he wanted to do it’.

Hussein’s lawyer, Ms Karmy-Jones, said he was ‘little more than a child with significant issues’ at the time of the killings.

She said there remained many unanswered questions, adding: ‘We hope in time and after some treatment the family will get some answers as to how and why these offences came to happen’.

The lawyer added: ‘He has got a loving family who are devastated by what has happened.’

Nicole Smallman, 27, and Bibaa Henry, 46, were attacked and stabbed to death in the early hours of June 6, last year, after an evening out celebrating the elder sister’s birthday at Fryent Park in Wembley, north London.

Hussein’s sentencing comes after the Met Police apologised to the family of the two murdered sisters for failings in the way it responded when they were reported missing.

A missing persons log was incorrectly closed and inquiries were not progressed, an investigation found.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said the Met’s response following calls from worried friends and family was ‘below the standard that it should have been’.

Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick said a better response would have saved their family and friends ‘immeasurable pain’, adding: ‘I am very sorry that the level of service we provided fell short.’

But the the sisters’ mother said the apology was 10 months too late.

Mina Smallman said the Met had shown ‘incompetent, reprehensible and blatant disregard of agreed procedures regarding missing persons’ during its investigation.

It began with the call handler’s inappropriate assertions, mishandling the call, which led to the cancellation of the missing persons alert.

‘The inspector on the second shift made erroneous assumptions about the whereabouts of our daughters.

‘We’re also of the view that his unprofessional comments about Bibaa and Nicole’s picnic suggest racial profiling, misogyny or classism.’

The womens’ bodies were found by Ms Smallman’s boyfriend the day after they had been reported missing to police.

Over a dozen friends and family members started their own search after the sisters’ did not return from the party.

The mother said: ‘This lasting image of his soulmate will forever remain in his minds eye.

‘Sorry just won’t cut it. It’s too hollow.

‘Sorry is something you say when you comprehend the wrong you have done and take full responsibility for it, demonstrating that by taking appropriate proportionate action – which the Met Police have failed to do.’

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