Police failings ‘materially contributed’ to murders of Raneem Oudeh and her mother Khaola Saleem
Multiple failures by West Midlands Police officers “materially contributed” to the deaths of a woman and her mother who were murdered by the daughter’s abusive estranged husband, an inquest has found.
Raneem Oudeh, 22, and her mother, Khaola Saleem, were stabbed to death outside Mrs Saleem’s home in Solihull in August 2018.
They were murdered as Ms Oudeh was on the phone to West Midlands Police, one of several 999 calls she had made to report how scared she was of Janbaz Tarin, her estranged husband.
Tarin admitted the murders and was jailed for life with a minimum of 32 years in December 2018.
The inquest has heard evidence of police call-outs to Ms Oudeh’s address on seven separate occasions in the weeks leading up to the murders.
Recordings of 999 calls were played to the inquest jury.
She had reported threats to kill, violence and stalking, but officers failed to arrest or investigate Tarin before the murders.
Weeks before he murdered her, she had left her husband after discovering that he had three children and a secret wife who was pregnant with a fourth child in Afghanistan.
She found out about his other family six months into their marriage.
Ms Oudeh had told family members that Tarin had threatened her saying “if you leave me, I will kill you and your family”.
Janbaz Tarin was pepper-sprayed by police during his arrest. Pic: West Midlands Police
She had been living with Tarin and her two-year-old son from a previous relationship, but neighbours say she had moved back to her mother’s house after a series of rows.
Tarin continued to harass and threaten her, sleeping outside Mrs Saleem’s house for 12 consecutive nights.
On the night of the murder in August 2018 the pair were seen on CCTV arguing in a shisha lounge in Birmingham.
Ms Oudeh, who was with her mother as the argument escalated, was seen on the footage calling 999, her first of four calls to police that night.
Tarin was kicked out by staff but moments later drove past in his van indicating a cutting motion across his neck towards Ms Oudeh.
The women both died of multiple stab wounds
He then drove to his father’s supermarket and hid a 12-inch steak knife in his waistband before leaving.
His van was captured on CCTV driving towards Mrs Saleem’s home in Solihull.
At 12.26am Ms Oudeh made the last of her calls to police that evening to say she would be at the Solihull address.
Ten minutes later they called her back to say officers would call her the following morning to go through the incident.
During that call screaming could be heard in the background, with the words “he’s there, there, there”.
There were further screams before the call went silent.
The women both died of multiple stab wounds during a frenzied attack.
Raneem Oudeh (left) and Khaola Saleem (right)
Tarin fled the scene but was arrested days later following a major manhunt.
Kinaan Saleem, 19, Mrs Saleem’s daughter, who was babysitting Ms Oudeh’s son and witnessed the murder, told Sky News: “I was just about to go to bed until I heard screaming, loads of screaming.
“I looked outside my window and I saw my mother already on the floor and my sister standing next to the perpetrator and he did his killing and dropped his knife and went to the van.”
Kinaan was just 14 years old at the time.
“Until this day it’s been really hard to deal with,” she said.
Kinaan Saleem (right) witnessed the murder. Nour Norris (left) says the family blame the police
“It’s just really hard to cope. From the first call to a police officer it could have been prevented. Knowing that she actually cried for help and begged for them and they did not come at all.”
Nour Norris, Mrs Saleem’s sister and Ms Oudeh’s aunt, said: “It’s like watching a horror movie in slow motion as we head to the inevitable conclusion.”
“It was devastating to us because we’d never heard those calls before. Raneem was very clear,” she told Sky News.
She said the family were “very deeply disappointed, very angry, mixed emotions. We are very concerned today about domestic abuse victims and what is happening to them”.
“We do blame the police because the proof of the inquest has shown very clear that the system is failing miserably,” she added.
“The death of my sister and my niece could have been prevented.”
Specialist search teams, police dogs and divers have been dispatched to find two sisters who vanished in Aberdeen three days ago.
Eliza and Henrietta Huszti, both 32, were last seen on CCTV in the city’s Market Street at Victoria Bridge at about 2.12am on Tuesday.
The siblings were captured crossing the bridge and turning right onto a footpath next to the River Dee in the direction of Aberdeen Boat Club.
Henrietta Huszti. Pic: Police Scotland
Eliza Huszti. Pic: Police Scotland
Police Scotland has launched a major search and said it is carrying out “extensive inquires” in an effort to find the women.
Chief Inspector Darren Bruce said: “Local officers, led by specialist search advisors, are being assisted by resources including police dogs and our marine unit.”
Aberdeenshire Drone Services told Sky News it has offered to help in the search and is waiting to hear back from Police Scotland.
CCTV of the sisters. Pic: Police Scotland
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The sisters, from Aberdeen city centre, are described as slim with long brown hair.
Police said the Torry side of Victoria Bridge where the sisters were last seen contains many commercial and industrial units, with searches taking place in the vicinity.
The force urged businesses in and around the South Esplanade and Menzies Road area to review CCTV footage recorded in the early hours of Tuesday in case it captured anything of significance.
Drivers with relevant dashcam footage are also urged to come forward.
CI Bruce added: “We are continuing to speak to people who know Eliza and Henrietta and we urge anyone who has seen them or who has any information regarding their whereabouts to please contact 101.”
Glasgow has been a city crying out for solutions to a devastating drugs epidemic that is ravaging people hooked on deadly narcotics.
We have spent time with vulnerable addicts in recent months and witnessed first-hand the dirty, dangerous street corners and back alleys where they would inject their £10 heroin hit, not knowing – or, in many cases, not caring – whether that would be the moment they die.
“Dying would be better than this life,” one man told me.
It was a grim insight into the daily reality of life in the capital of Europe’s drug death crisis.
Scotland has a stubborn addiction to substances spanning generations. Politicians of all persuasions have failed to properly get a grip of the emergency.
But there is a new concept in town.
From Monday, a taxpayer-funded unit is allowing addicts to bring their own heroin and cocaine and inject it while NHS medical teams supervise.
A dirty needle thrown less than 100 metres from the new injection centre
It may be a UK-first but it is a regular feature in some other major European cities that have claimed high success rates in saving lives.
Glasgow has looked on with envy at these other models.
One supermarket car park less than a hundred metres from this new facility is a perfect illustration of the problem. An area littered with dirty needles and paraphernalia. A minefield where one wrong step risks contracting a nasty disease.
Drugs paraphernalia in a supermarket car park in Glasgow, near the new facility
It is estimated hundreds of users inject heroin in public places in Glasgow every week. HIV has been rife.
The new building, which will be open from 9am until 9pm 365 days a year, includes bays where clean needles are provided as part of a persuasive tactic to lure addicts indoors in a controlled environment.
There is a welcome area where people will check in before being invited into one of eight bays. The room is clinical, covered in mirrors, with a row of small medical bins.
Clean needles are provided to lure addicts to inject in a controlled environment
There are eight bays users can inject in
We were shown the aftercare area where users will relax after their hit in the company of housing and social workers.
The idea is controversial and not cheap – £2.3m has been ring-fenced every year.
The aftercare area
Read more: ‘Dying would be better than my £1,000 a month heroin addiction’
Authorities in the city first floated a ‘safer drug consumption room’ in 2016. It failed to get off the ground as the UK Home Office under the Conservatives said they would not allow people to break the law to feed habits.
The usual wrangle between Edinburgh and London continued for years with Downing Street suggesting Scotland could, if it wanted, use its discretion to allow these injecting rooms to go ahead.
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The stalemate ended when Scotland’s most senior prosecutor issued a landmark decision that it would not be in the public interest to arrest those using such a facility.
One expert has told me this new concept is unlikely to lead to an overall reduction in deaths across Scotland. Another described it as an expensive vanity project. Supporters clearly disagree.
The question is what does success look like?
The big test will be if there is a spike in crime around the building and how it will work alongside law enforcement given drug dealers know exactly where to find their clients now.
It is not disputed this is a radical approach – and other cities across Britain will be watching closely.
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