YouTube removes occultist who influenced murderer of two sisters

Bibaa Henry, 46, and Nicole Smallman, 27, were murdered by Danyal Hussein in June 2020

An occultist who influenced a murderer of two sisters has been removed from YouTube, after a BBC investigation.

Danyal Hussein, 19, killed Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman in a park in Wembley, north London, in June 2020.

He was active on an occult forum run by American EA Koetting - whose writings have encouraged murder - until hours before his arrest, the BBC revealed.

Hussein was jailed for life on Thursday and must spend at least 35 years in prison.

The trial heard of a "demonic" pact in which he committed to sacrificing women in return for money and power.

Koetting had more than 85,000 followers on Youtube and thousands more on Facebook, which has already removed him from its platforms.

The BBC first passed on evidence relating to him to the social media giants in August.

The online forum, of which Hussein was a member, was run by the self-styled "black magician" Koetting - who provided instructions for demonic pacts.

The BBC showed parallels between Koetting's public instructions and Hussein's actions, including how the pact document was signed and what the killer requested.

An image of Matthew Lawrence who uses the name EA Koetting, taken in a US prison

Koetting is from Utah in the US and his real name is Matthew Lawrence. He has convictions for drugs and weapon possession offences.

One of his texts, which he recently promoted on YouTube, advises people to study terrorist methods and quotes the Moors Murderer Ian Brady, who tortured and killed five children in the 1960s.

The text was written for an American Satanist group, Tempel ov Blood, which is part of the Order of Nine Angles - an organisation linked to multiple UK terrorism cases.

A spokesperson for YouTube said: "Hate and violence have no place on YouTube, and we are deeply saddened by this terrible incident.

Our strict policies prohibit content or links to content that incites violence, and after careful review, we have removed the channel in question."