The mother who forgave her daughters’ killer – but not the police – podcast

Mina Smallman’s world fell apart after the murder of her two daughters. Then came a shocking revelation about the police’s behaviour. She explains how she found the strength to fight back

Mina Smallman’s life has not been an easy one but she could always find hope somewhere. The first female archdeacon from an ethnic minority background she was brought up, she says, in “poverty and chaos”. But as a young single parent she went back to school and became a teacher, looking for sparks of potential in even the most unpromising children.

She met her husband Chris, and had a wonderfully happy family life with her three daughters until one day when everything changed. Two of her adult daughters had been celebrating a birthday together but never came home. The police did not go to look for them so their friends and family did – only to find they had been killed. Mina says, for the first time, she felt robbed of hope.