Pact made with a demon

A teenager accused of murdering two sisters in a north London park last year believes he made a pact with a demon in which he promised to “sacrifice women” in order to win the lottery, a court in England has heard.

Senior BBC journalist Harry Farley, who was reporting from the Old Bailey on June 9, took to Twitter to share news of the trial, in which Danyal Hussein, 19, stands accused of murdering Nicole Smallman, 27, and Bibaa Henry, 46.

According to the BBC, the Old Bailey was told Hussein stabbed the two women over 30 times in Fryent Country Park, Wembley, on June 6, 2020. Friends of the women found their entwined bodies the following day.

Prosecutor Oliver Glasgow QC said at the Wednesday trial that when police searched Hussein’s bedroom, they found a “handwritten document, purporting to be an agreement between the defendant and a demon.”

In the document, the defendant promised to “sacrifice women in order to win the lottery and not to be suspected of the crimes he had committed.” 

Devil didn’t pay dues

Glasgow said the defendant didn’t win the lottery and that “police identified all the evidence” connecting him to the murders. He added:

the demon did not come good on the bargain”

The BBC reported that the defendant stabbed Henry eight times and Smallman 28 times with a knife bought from supermarket chain Asda. Glasgow said the attack on the women — who were at the park celebrating Henry’s birthday — was “as savage as it was devastating.” Hussein, from Blackheath in southeast London, denies the charges.

The prosecutor added that the defendant “had confidence” in his plan, buying several lottery tickets, with three tickets found inside the discovered document.

Trial set to last four weeks

The prosecutor suggested Smallman attempted to fight off the attacker, while Henry was “taken by surprise and overpowered first.”

After slaying the women, the killer “dragged their bodies across the grass and concealed them in a hedgerow.” Hussein went to hospital the day after the killings, the Old Bailey was told, with cuts on his hand from a knife.

Hussein’s trial, set to last four weeks, continues.

While the pact-with-the-devil angle to win a lottery is unusual, murdering victims to fund a gambling habit is less uncommon.

In June 2015, also in the UK, bingo addict Susan Warne pushed her 80-year-old uncle down stairs before stabbing and strangling him. Hours after the victim’s death, Warne was playing slot machines in a seaside arcade, her grisly gambling spree funded by the ￡300 ($391.62) she stole from her uncle’s wallet.