Victim of “Honour” killing is failed by the police and then by the IPCC

From The Times
December 1, 2008
Promotion for PC Angela Cornes who ignored victim Banaz Mahmod
PC Angela Cornes


A police officer whose blunders were criticised after Britain’s most notorious “honour” killing has escaped punishment after the collapse of disciplinary proceedings against her.

When a bleeding and distressed Banaz Mahmod told PC Angela Cornes that her father had just tried to murder her, the officer dismissed her as a melodramatic drunk. Instead of investigating the young woman’s allegations, she wanted to charge her with criminal damage for breaking a window during her escape.

Three weeks later, Miss Mahmod, 20, was raped, tortured and strangled at her South London home. Her body was put in a suitcase and buried in the garden of a house in Birmingham.



PC Cornes had been due to face a disciplinary hearing last month after a lengthy investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC). The Times has discovered that all charges against her have been dropped. Instead of dismissal, she is in line to be promoted to sergeant and given a backdated pay rise. Miss Mahmod’s murder – punishment for falling in love with the wrong man – was orchestrated by her father and an uncle, Iraqi Kurds, now serving life after an Old Bailey trial in June last year.

The IPCC investigated after the trial had ended. The victim had told police four times, between December 2005 and January 2006, that her family wanted her dead and had given them a list naming the men likely to carry out the murder. She even gave evidence to the jury from beyond the grave, in a video recording made from her hospital bed on the day she first met PC Cornes.

Last April, the police watchdog announced that two officers, PC Cornes and her supervising inspector, would be ordered to appear before a disciplinary panel “to explain their actions”.

Both faced the threat of dismissal for conduct which “fell below the required standard”. Officers were said to have displayed “insensitivity and a lack of understanding”.

In April, Nicola Williams, an IPCC commissioner, said that Miss Mahmod “lost her life in terrible circumstances”. She had been “let down by the service she received” from the police and it was “entirely appropriate for two officers to face a disciplinary panel”.

The hearing was scheduled for November 17 but all charges against the pair were withdrawn because of “insufficient evidence”. Parties involved were told on November 14. No public announcement was made.

Would that be the "No Comment" type of lack of evidence by any chance?

This sort of thing goes on all of the time, the toothless IPCC receive a complaint and then a token investigation is conducted which gets nowhere because of various vested interests.

Shoddy and shambolic are the words that spring to mind, quickly followed by typical and expected.

Instead of disciplinary proceedings, The Times can reveal that PC Cornes is to receive “words of advice”, the lowest sanction – less severe than a written warning – that can be given to a serving police officer. She is due for a pay rise after being selected for promotion to sergeant, a rise through the ranks which was delayed pending the findings of the disciplinary panel.


One word of advice which was missing, to both officer and the investigating officers of the IPCC, "tender your resignations."

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