Police failings 'materially contributed' to murders of Solihull mum and daughter

An inquest into the murder of a mother and daughter has found multiple failures by West Midlands Police "materially contributed" to their deaths.

Raneem Oudeh, 22, and her mother, Khaola Saleem, were stabbed to death in August 2018 by Ms Oudeh's abusive estranged husband.

Ms Oudeh was on the phone to West Midlands Police when she was attacked and killed. It was one of several 999 calls she had made reporting domestic abuse, threats to kill and stalking by Janbaz Tarin.

Tarin admitted the murders and was jailed for life with a minimum of 32 years in December 2018.

The inquest heard evidence of police call-outs to Ms Oudeh's address on seven separate occasions in the weeks leading up to the murders. Officers failed to arrest or investigate Tarin.

Ms Oudeh had told relatives that Tarin had threatened her saying "if you leave me, I will kill you and your family".

On the night of the murders, Ms Oudeh was seen on footage shown to the jury calling 999, her first of four calls to police that night.

At 12.26am, she made the last of her calls to say she would be at the Solihull address.

She was told 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.

Nour Norris, Mrs Saleem's sister and Ms Oudeh's aunt, said: "West Midlands Police has failed beyond imagination and to provide safety throughout the time Raneem was asking for help.

"There was evidence showing that they were aware of the domestic abuse and stalking, and nothing was done about it. We saw a lot of evidence of lack of understanding of what is domestic abuse and a lot of officers haven't had proper training.

"We have been carrying disappointment for 4 years now. Until today, we didn't realise how bad it was until we started the inquest.

"Getting justice and recognising the mistakes that lead to the death of my sister and niece, that's one thing.

"But one thing we don't want is to get filed away, we want changes. We want domestic abuse to be recognised, more awareness of what domestic abuse is, among police forces and other organisations as well."

Assistant Chief Constable Andy Hill said: “The murders of Raneem Oudeh and her mother Khaola Saleem in 2018 are among the most shocking and appalling crimes in our region in recent years.

“On behalf of West Midlands Police, I would like to apologise to Raneem and Khaola’s family – we should have done more. Their dignity throughout the inquest has been humbling.

“More could have been done to protect Raneem from the campaign of domestic abuse that she suffered in the months leading up to her death at the hands of the man who would go on to kill her and her mother.

“The events leading up to this awful tragedy have rightly been examined in detail in the inquest and by other organisations to ensure that lessons can be learned and to give the families the answers they deserve.

“It is clear that we should have done more to join-up the incidents of abuse that were being reported to us so that the officers considering Raneem’s case had a full picture of the ordeal that Raneem was enduring at the hands of Janbaz Tarin.

“The seriousness and pattern of abuse should have been better recognised, the risk posed by Mr Tarin should have been better assessed and the crimes that were being committed should have been better identified and investigated, with action taken against Mr Tarin.

“We should have done more to safeguard Raneem, by considering appropriate interventions such as a domestic violence protection order or a referral to the Sanctuary Scheme, which could have made her home a safer place.

“We are continually striving to improve our response to domestic abuse. A number of key changes have already been made since the murders of Raneem and Khaola, including increasing the number of staff specifically investigating domestic abuse offences and the creation of a new team to review investigations.

"A scrutiny panel has also been formed to review decisions and give their independent professional assessment. More training has been provided to frontline officers to help them better understand key concepts of domestic abuse. We recognise, however, that more needs to be done. We will continue to learn from the tragic events at the heart of this inquest.

“Of course, none of this will undo the devastation that the murders of Raneem and Khaola caused to their family.

“Above all, our thoughts are with them today and again I offer our apologies.”

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