Two Metropolitan Police officers accused of sharing photos of the bodies of two murdered sisters on WhatsApp are due to enter pleas.

Pc Deniz Jaffer 47, and Pc Jamie Lewis, 33, will appear at the Old Bailey on Tuesday charged with committing misconduct in a public office between June 7 and June 23 last year.

The officers had been assigned to protect the scene after sisters Bibaa Henry, 46, and Nicole Smallman, 27, were found dead in bushes in Fryent Country Park in Wembley, north London.

It is alleged that they took “non-official and inappropriate photographs” of the crime scene before sharing them on WhatsApp.

They were arrested as part of a criminal investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) watchdog.

The charge against them states that “without authorisation he entered a crime scene he had been assigned to protect, sending information about his attendance at the scene to members of the public via WhatsApp and taking photographs of the crime scene”.

The pair, attached to the Met’s North East command unit, were both suspended from duty following their arrests on June 22 last year.

Jaffer, of Hornchurch, east London, and Lewis, from Colchester, Essex, are on unconditional bail.

They are due to appear before Judge Mark Lucraft QC at 9.30am.