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, where she was told “go to your Mum’s, lock the door, and we will see you tomorrow.”
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One of the several desperate 999 calls, Ms Oudeh made
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 he had three children and a secret wife who was pregnant with a fourth child in Afghanistan.
The inquest was told that in the months leading up to the stabbings Ms Oudeh called 999 14 times to report incidents of domestic abuse which included threats to kill her and to stab her and yet repeatedly police did not log these reports correctly, did not follow up on them correctly, and did not assess them correctly.
West Midlands Police on Friday admitted frankly, “we should have done more,” and said Raneem and Khaola’s family’s dignity throughout the inquest “has been humbling”.
An investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct found there were “missed opportunities”.
Read more: Catalogue of police failures and missed opportunities that led to deaths of two women
Janbaz Tarin was pepper-sprayed by police during his arrest. Pic: West Midlands Police
Ms Oudeh had also told family members, Tarin had threatened her, saying “if you leave me, I will kill you and your family”.
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.”
Police investigating a fire at a north London house owned by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer are also looking into whether it is linked to two other recent blazes.
The Metropolitan Police said on Monday evening that detectives are checking a vehicle fire in NW5 last week and a fire at the entrance of a property in N7 on Sunday to see whether they are connected to the fire at Sir Keir Starmer’s house in the early hours of Monday morning.
The prime minister is understood to still own the home and used to live there before he and his family moved into 10 Downing Street after Labour won last year’s general election. It is believed the property is being rented out.
Counter-terrorism police are leading the investigation as a precaution, the Met said.
The blaze damaged the entrance to the house, but there were no injuries, the force said.
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The entrance to the house was damaged by the fire. Pic: LNP
Counter-terror police are leading the investigation. Pic: LNP
A statement from the Metropolitan Police said: “On Monday 12 May at 1.35am, police were alerted by the London Fire Brigade to reports of a fire at a residential address.
“Officers attended the scene. Damage was caused to the property’s entrance, nobody was hurt.
“As a precaution and due to the property having previous connections with a high-profile public figure, officers from the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command are leading the investigation into this fire. Enquiries are ongoing to establish the potential cause of the fire.”
A police cordon and officers, as well as investigators from London Fire Brigade, could be seen outside and at one point, part of the street was cordoned off to all vehicles.
London Fire Brigade said firefighters were called just after 1am, and the blaze was out within half an hour. It described the incident as “a small fire outside a property”.
Pic: PA
Emergency services were deployed to the scene in north London. Pic: PA
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Sir Keir expressed his gratitude to the police and fire services via his official spokesman, who said: “I can only say that the prime minister thanks the emergency services for their work, and it is subject to a live investigation. So I can’t comment any further.”
On Monday, Sir Keir made a major policy speech on immigration, promising to bring down net migration by the end of this parliament with a system that is “controlled, selective and fair”.
He did not clarify how far he wants figures to fall, only saying numbers will come down “substantially” as he set out plans in the government’s Immigration White Paper, including banning care homes from hiring overseas.
A power outage caused major travel disruption on London’s Tube network on Monday, stretching into rush hour.
The Elizabeth, Bakerloo, Jubilee and Northern lines were among the routes either suspended or delayed, with several stations closed and passengers forced to evacuate.
A spokesman for Transport for London (TfL) said there was an outage in southwest London for “a matter of minutes” and “everything shut down”.
National Grid confirmed a fault on its transmission network, which was resolved in “seconds”, but led to a “voltage dip” that affected some supplies.
The London Fire Brigade said the fault caused a fire at an electrical substation in Maida Vale, and it’s understood firefighters destroyed three metres of high-voltage cabling.
The scene in Piccadilly Circus as passengers were evacuated
That came just weeks after a fire at the same substation, which saw elderly and vulnerable residents among those moved from their homes.
But today’s fire – between Cunningham Place and Aberdeen Place – is understood to have involved different equipment to the parts in the 29 April incident.
TfL’s chief operating officer Claire Mann apologised for the disruption, adding: “Due to a brief interruption of the power supply to our network, several lines lost power for a short period earlier this afternoon.”
Passengers told Sky News of the disruption’s impact on their plans, with one claiming he would have had to spend £140 for a replacement ticket after missing his train.
He said he will miss a business meeting on Tuesday morning in Plymouth as a result.
Another said she walked to five different stations on Monday, only to find each was closed when she arrived.
Lines suspended and stations shut – as it happened
“Only on the last station did I find out it was a power outage affecting the entire Underground, after I approached ticketing staff,” she said.
“Again, no announcement made. So I looked for bus alternatives. In total, I spent two hours stranded in central London. Horrible experience.
“I feel bad for people who possibly missed their flights.”
TfL staff have said they are working to restore the entire network, with some disruption extending into Monday night.
UK
Minister does not rule out ‘supermax’ jails for most dangerous offenders following alleged Rudakubana attack on prison officer
“Supermax” jails could be built to house the most dangerous offenders following a spate of alleged attacks on staff, the prisons minister has said.
James Timpson told the Politics Hub with Sophy Ridge that “we shouldn’t rule anything out” when asked if the most dangerous criminals should be placed in top security prisons.
It comes after Southport triple killer Axel Rudakubana allegedly threw boiling water from a kettle at an officer at HMP Belmarsh on Thursday. Police are now investigating.
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Is the UK prison system broken?
Before that, three prison officers were also allegedly attacked by 28-year-old Hashem Abedi – the brother of Manchester Arena bomber Salman Abedi – with hot cooking oil and “improvised knives”, potentially made from a baking tray.
Speaking from HMP Preston for a special programme of the Politics Hub, Mr Timpson told Sophy Ridge: “We inherited a complete mess in the prison system.
“Violence is up, assaults on staff is up. But for me, we shouldn’t rule anything out.”
He added: “What we need to do is to speak to our staff. They’re the experts at dealing with these offenders day in, day out. “
Mr Timpson – who was the chief executive of Timpson Group before he was appointed prisons minister last year – said the violence in prisons was “too high”.
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Are we sending too many people to prison?
He continued: “The number of people when you have prisons are so full, and the people in there are not going to education or into purposeful activity.
“You get more violence and that is totally unacceptable. Our staff turn up to work to help turn people.
“They want to turn people’s lives around. They didn’t turn up to work to get assaulted. It’s totally unacceptable.”
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Reflecting on the crisis facing the UK prison system ahead of the government’s sentencing review, Mr Timpson said a major problem was the high rate of reoffending, saying “80% of offending is reoffending”.
He said people were leaving places like HMP Preston “addicted to drugs, nowhere to live, mental health problems – and that’s why they keep coming back”.
Asked whether every prison had a drugs issue, he replied: “100%.”
“If we want to keep the public safe, we need to do a lot more of the work in here and in the community. But also we need to build more prisons.”
Put to him that making more use of community sentences – thought to be one of the recommendations in the government’s sentencing review – might be considered a “cushy option” compared to a custodial sentence, Mr Timpson said: “There are some people in this prison tonight who would prefer to be in prison than do a community sentence – but that’s not everybody.
“Community sentences need to be tough punishments outside of prison, not just to help them address their offending behaviour, but also the victims need to see punishments being done too and for me, technology has a big part to play in the future.”
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