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Police who 'let down' honour killing victim face the sackLast updated at 18:30pm on 2nd April 2008
 Murdered: Banaz Mahmod was 'let down by poice' despite begging for help 
The 20-year-old Muslim begged police for help four times before her brutal murder at the hands of her father and her uncle. Her fears were not taken seriously, even after she smashed her way out of her grandmother's house to escape her family's first attempt at killing her. The police officer who took her statement, PC Angela Cornes, dismissed her account as fantasy and wanted to charge her with criminal damage because she broke a window during her escape, her Old Bailey murder trial was told. A month later Miss Mahmod was raped, tortured and murdered and her body was found buried in a suitcase in a garden in Birmingham three months later. Scotland Yard refused to confirm if PC Cornes was one of two officers who have been ordered to face internal disciplinary panels over the death. The Independent Police Complaints Commission criticised a series of failings in the handling of her complaints about her family. Two officers will face internal disciplinary panels and could be sacked, seven will be given written warnings and another two will be offered advice or training over the police watchdog's findings. The IPPC criticised police for showing insensitivity and a lack of understanding over Miss Mahmod's fears. It found their initial investigation was flawed, subsequent lines of inquiry were not followed and there was inadequate supervision. Miss Mahmod's Iraqi Kurd father and uncle ordered her death after her affair with fellow Kurd Rahmat Sulemani was discovered, their Old Bailey murder trial heard. She contacted police four times over her fears that she and her lover were in danger and even gave them a list of five people she suspected would harm her. On New Year's Eve 2005 she managed to escape a bungled murder attempt at her grandmother's home in Wimbledon, South London, and fled to a cafe.
 Guilty father: Mahmod Mahmod ordered his daughter's death Officers then approached her father, despite police guidelines which forbid such moves because they alert the family that the victim has contacted police. Less than a month later she disappeared from her home in Mitcham, also South London, and her body was not found for another three months. Her father Mahmod Mahmod, 51, his brother, Ari Mahmod, 54, both from Mitcham, and Mohamad Hama, 30, of West Norwood, were all jailed for life for her murder. The IPPC criticised West Midlands Police for failings over earlier complaints by Miss Mahmod, and said its investigation was "flawed, not done in a timely fashion and poorly supervised". It found the Metropolitan Police's response to her New Year's Eve 999 call "fell below the required standard" and recommended a constable and a supervising inspector should appear before a disciplinary panel for their handling of the matter. Four London officers and three West Midlands detectives should receive written warnings, it recommended. IPPC commissioner Nicola Williams said: "We have found that Banaz Mahmod was let down by the service she received. "There were delays in investigations, poor supervision, a lack of understanding and insensitivity." She said the Metropolitan Police had handled three other incidents "appropriately and sensitively". Scotland Yard confirmed the IPCC's recommendations but said it could not comment until all disciplinary proceedings were completed. No date has yet been set for the panels. • Two men are due to stand trial at the Old Bailey in July in connection with the killing. Amir Abbas, 30, of no fixed address, is charged with conspiracy to murder and he and Dashti Babaker, 21, of Camberwell, South London are both charged with perverting the course of justice.
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