Raneem Oudeh and her mother, Khaola Saleem, 49, were stabbed to death by Oudeh’s estranged husband, Janbaz Tarin, in August 2018 after he had subjected her to stalking, domestic violence and coercive control for more than a year. The pair were killed outside Saleem’s home in Solihull while Oudeh was calling West Midlands Police, one of at least seven calls she made to emergency services before her death, many of which were played to the jury. At Birmingham Coroner’s Court, an inquest into their deaths concluded on Friday that officers had breached the force’s domestic abuse policy on multiple occasions. The jury found that “officers failed to conduct effective inquiries into possible offences” committed by Tarin and “failed to take adequate steps to protect Raneem”. Tarin had previously admitted the double murder and was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 32 years in December 2018. Salim’s sister Noor Norris said she struggled to contain her anger when the 999 calls made by her niece were played out in court. “[Raneem] he told them everything they needed to hear to arrest him from the first call. She told them about the abuse and how he threatened to take her life,” he told the Guardian. “The level of failure was appalling. There was so much evidence, but not once was he arrested, not once was he questioned. If the matter had been dealt with early enough, perhaps Raneem and Khaola would be with us today.” Raneem Oudeh makes phone calls to West Midlands Police – video The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said it found West Midlands Police “missed opportunities” to take “positive action” for Oudeh and Saleem. IOPC regional director Derrick Campbell added: “The circumstances of this case are shocking and deeply disturbing and I would like to express my condolences to the family of Raneem and Khaola for their loss. “Our investigation found that insufficient intelligence checks were carried out when responding to incidents involving Raneem and her ex-partner. Our view was that the WMP dealt with each incident individually and failed to take into account the cumulative effect and possible increase in the frequency and/or level of violence.’ The inquest heard that Oudeh, who had a son from a previous relationship, had suffered months of violence and abuse at the hands of Tarin, who was sleeping in a car outside her home when she tried to leave him. On one occasion she carved her name into his arm with a razor blade. A few months before her death, Oudeh had left Tarin as he believed he had a pregnant wife and children back home in Afghanistan, which he was keeping secret. In the first call to the police on April 2, 2018, Raneem is heard saying: “My old friend, he always forces me to stay with him. He says: “I will kill you if you leave me.” In a call the following month, she told police Taryn punched her in the face and stomach, though she later withdrew her police report after speaking with Taryn. In August, Oudeh successfully served Tarin with a non-molestation order, a type of restraining order against a partner. On the night of their murder, Taryn met Ude and her mother in a hookah lounge and slapped Salim across the face. Oudeh called the police four times, although officers were delayed by a firearms incident in the area, and finally asked to speak to the police the next morning. She was still on the phone to the police when she returned to her mother’s house, where Taryn was waiting for them. Shouts are heard in the background of the call, along with the words “he’s there, there, there.” Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. The inquiry concluded that the police failed to keep adequate records of the individual incidents leading up to the murders, often omitting Taryn’s threats to kill Ude, and that the incidents were not taken seriously. Norris said: “At every stage they have shown a dismissive attitude and a lack of understanding of domestic violence. And because they didn’t take strong action, the perpetrator used it against her, she got the power from the police not to arrest him. It made him think “Oh, I can do whatever I like here.” He was actually going up to her and saying, “Look, the police don’t believe you, nobody believes you, I have complete control over you.” Norris said that after a while Oudeh lost faith in the police and stopped calling, although concerned neighbors continued to do so, in calls that were also played for the jury. “We didn’t realize how bad it was until we were in that courtroom. It was horrifying. The failure of the police was appalling,” he said. Hannana Siddiqui of the women’s rights group Southall Black Sisters said “a dismissive attitude by some police officers betrays a deeper cultural failure to take domestic and honor-based abuse seriously”. “These failures are both shocking and infuriating. They come after many other deaths of women with similar state failures. We demand a public inquiry into femicide,” he said. Norris said the family has pushed relentlessly to emphasize the importance of police training and awareness of domestic abuse and coercive control and wants to see action from police. “The last thing I want is for this case to be closed and swept under the rug,” he said. “We want West Midlands Police to apologize publicly, but we want them to make a promise to the public that they will change the system and do things differently. “At least for the honor of Khaola and Raneem, I want people to be saved and I want change to happen.” Andy Hill, assistant chief constable of West Midlands Police, said the murders were “one of the most shocking and horrific crimes in our region in recent years”. “On behalf of West Midlands Police, I would like to apologize to Raneem and Khaola’s family – we should have done more. It is clear that we should have done more to piece together the incidents of abuse reported to us so that the officers looking into Raneem’s case would have a full picture of the ordeal Raneem suffered at the hands of Janbaz Tarin. He said changes had already been made to the force, including an increase in the number of staff investigating specific domestic abuse offences, the creation of a new investigation review team and more training for frontline officers. “We recognize, however, that more needs to be done,” he said. “We will continue to learn from the tragic events at the center of this investigation.”
