An occult-obsessed teenager found guilty of murdering two sisters in a north-west London park was referred to an anti-radicalisation scheme in the past, it has been revealed.
Danyal Hussein, 19, was convicted on Tuesday of fatally stabbing Bibaa Henry, 46, and Nicole Smallman, 27, at Fryent Country Park, near Wembley, last year as they celebrated a birthday with friends.
A jury on Tuesday found Hussein guilty of two counts of murder and possession of a knife with intent.
Jurors were not told of the extent of Hussein’s obsession with the occult which was only revealed after his conviction.
In a “campaign of vengeance” Hussein pledged to kill six women every six months in an apparent demonic pact, and carry on killing women for as long as he could, jurors heard.
Hussein’s killing spree was halted because he cut himself during the frenzied attack on the sisters, enabling police to track him through DNA.
Hussein had come to the attention of police aged 15 after he was considered vulnerable to radicalisation and violent extremism.
Det Chief Insp Simon Harding revealed that Hussein had been on a deradicalisation programme between October 2017 and May 2018 after being referred to the Prevent scheme by his school.
After his arrest, police found evidence that Hussein had communicated with others about demons and love potions, and carried out online research about the far-right and Norse mythology.
But the depths of his cult-like ideology remain unknown because Hussein refused to hand over passwords for his iPad.
In the early hours of June 6 last year, he stalked his victims as they celebrated Ms Henry’s birthday.
Hussein took Ms Henry by surprise, stabbing her eight times, before he slashed Ms Smallman 28 times as she fought back, sustaining multiple injuries.
Hussein dragged them by the feet into bushes where they lay undiscovered for 36 hours.
During the savage attack, Hussein cut his right hand with the 12-centimetre knife that he dropped in the grass.
On the evening of June 6, the sisters’ loved ones reported them missing but officers were not sent to the park until the next day.
Before police arrived, Ms Smallman’s frantic boyfriend Adam Stone began searching the park with his parents.
He was on the phone to police when he found the bodies at 12.30pm.
Officers, who carried out a painstaking search, identified blood stains on the knife, the bodies and the surrounding scene which all linked to the DNA of an unknown male.
The national DNA database failed to identify the sample but on June 30, in a major breakthrough, a DNA familial link was made to Hussein’s father, who had a previous police caution.
Following his arrest, Hussein, who is of Iraqi Muslim descent, told police he had Asperger’s syndrome and trouble with his memory, then refused to answer questions and disputed all the evidence against him.
Olcay Sapanoglu, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said the sisters’ lives were “cruelly cut short in the most horrific of ways”.
“Hussein has shown no remorse throughout these proceedings," she said. "He has consistently denied being the person caught on CCTV making his way to and from the park or being the person buying the murder weapon at an Asda supermarket.
“The deaths of Ms Henry and Ms Smallman have devastated their loved ones and left a local community reeling. Our thoughts remain with all those affected.”
