WEST MIDLANDS Police said more could have been done to protect a mother and daughter who were murdered in Solihull.
Raneem Oudeh and her mother Khaola Saleem, 49, were stabbed Northdown Road, Solihull in 2018 by Raneem’s estranged husband Janbaz Tarin,
In 2018 he was jailed by Birmingham Crown Court for 32 years for their murders.
Raneem, 22, was married to Tarin under Islamic law and had been trying to end her relationship with Tarin, when she discovered he was already married and had three children with his wife in Afganistan.
She had spoken to police about him a number of times, and previous contact between the family.
A coroner concluding an inquest into Raneem and her mother’s death found failings by West Midlands Police ‘materially contributed’ to their deaths.
Since then the force’s Assistant Chief Constable Andy Hill has issued a formal apology.
He 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 Tarin.
“The seriousness and pattern of abuse should have been better recognised, the risk posed by Tarin should have been better assessed and the crimes that were being committed should have been better identified and investigated, with action taken against 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.”
He added that a number of changes have been made since their murders including more training for frontline officers to help understand domestic abuse and increasing the number of staff specifically investigating domestic abuse offences and the creation of a new team to review investigations.
