A teenager who murdered two sisters in a London park has been given two concurrent 35-year jail sentences at the Old Bailey. Danyal Hussein, 19, killed Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman in a random attack which he believed would act as a “sacrifice” to a demon named “the mighty king Lucifuge Rofocale” to enable him to win the lottery. Handing out the 35-year minimum term on Thursday, Mrs Justice Whipple told Hussein: “You committed these vicious attacks. You did it to kill. You did it for money and a misguided pursuit of power. “This was a calculated and deliberate course of conduct, planned and carried out with precision. “Bizarre though the pact with the devil may appear to others, this was your belief system, your own commitment to the murder of innocent women. “No family should have to endure this.” Whipple said she was unable to hand out a whole-life sentence because Hussein was under 21. She said the usual minimum term would be 37 years for crimes of this severity, but that she had reduced it because of Hussein’s age – he had only turned 18 three weeks before committing the crime – and his autism spectrum disorder diagnosis, which she said could “make you a person who could struggle in prison more than others”. She decided, however, not to consider evidence of an undiagnosed personality disorder or psychopathy identified in a psychiatric report as a mitigating factor, or to delay sentencing while these were further examined, because Hussein had refused to comply with the evaluation. Whipple said he would only become eligible for release after a minimum of 35 years, and that this would only happen “if at that point you are no longer a danger for the public”. Hussein had declined to give evidence in his trial, claiming he was not responsible for the killings or for writing the pact. The sisters were visiting Fryent country park in Wembley for a small party on 6 June 2020 to celebrate Henry’s birthday when they were murdered. The sisters had stayed in the park celebrating until the early hours of the morning. Around 1am, Hussein stabbed Henry eight times and Smallman 28 times as she fought back, causing Hussein to cut his right hand with the 12cm knife. He then dragged their bodies 75 metres away into a wooded area where they lay undiscovered for 36 hours. They were found by Smallman’s boyfriend a day after they were reported missing to police. After police traced DNA gathered from the knife left at the crime scene back to Hussein, they raided his family home in Blackheath, south-east London. They found a contract Hussein believed he had drawn up with a demon – signed in blood – pledging to “perform a minimum of six sacrifices every six months for as long as I am free and physically capable” in exchange for winning the Mega Millions Super Jackpot. Searches on Hussein’s computer found he had been researching far-right extremism as well as satanism and the occult, which have crossover in some online communities. Speaking to reporters, the sisters’ mother, Mina Smallman, said she would not be celebrating the result, but that “justice had been done” after several weeks that have been “very difficult” for her. She said: “He’s a broken human being who, if he hadn’t been caught, other families might have been suffering as we have. He ain’t there now. He’s so deluded, come 35 years’ time they won’t let him out. I won’t let them let him out.” She said she was considering campaigning against the minimum age threshold of 21 for life sentencing. “We need to review that separation, when someone is an adult. I think it’s disrespectful to say that children can’t tell the difference between good and evil.” She described her daughters as “beautiful girls” and “real people with hearts”. She praised Henry’s “amazing” contribution as a social worker to families in the local area, and added that she left behind a daughter and a grandson born last year. She added: “Nicole, we grieve more for her because there was 20 years difference.” The home secretary, Priti Patel, said the government must “ultimately do much more in the protection and the prevention of these abhorrent crimes”, especially in relation to violence against women and girls and how complaints of violence are handled. She said that questions were “being asked within the Metropolitan police” about their response to the case, which the police watchdog said was “below the standard that it should have been”. In an interview on Sky News, Dal Babu, the former chief superintendent in the Metropolitan police, said the Met “didn’t cover themselves in glory” in their failure to prioritise the case, which resulted in searches beginning 12 hours after the sisters had been reported as missing. “Race certainly played a part in it,” he said. “People will be asking this question: If this had been a white woman, 46 years old, celebrating her birthday with no history of going missing, and the family saying they were concerned, action would be taken much more quickly.”