The grieving mother of a man shot in the face outside a pizza restaurant was shocked to see police apparently "joking" about her son's death.

Carol Campbell, mother of Craig Small, claimed that she saw police laughing and behaving as if her son's murder was a "joke" in a video she found unexpectedly on YouTube.

Craig Small, a 32-year-old rapper known as 'Smallz', was shot outside a pizza restaurant in July 2019.

Two days after his murder, Craig's mother watched the unedited CCTV video of her son's fatal shooting as it appeared in her YouTube feed.

Ms Campbell told ITV: "We watch a lot of the YouTube videos, so it just automatically came up and he [Craig] popped up on the screen.

"And I said isn’t that Craig?

"I saw the guy come up to him and what he did to my son.

"There was no filter it was just raw.

"It wasn't it wasn't edited or anything."

According to Carol, the video seemed to have been filmed in a police station with police radios audible in the background - and uploaded by someone working for the Met.

 

She said: "While they were all watching it, someone took out their phone, recorded it and put it out on social media."

She says she could hear police laughter and comments which treated her son's death as a "joke".

In response to Ms Campbell's allegations, the police issued a statement, saying that the video had been referred to the official police watchdog.

The Metropolitan Police is currently investigating officers for misconduct and gross misconduct due to the video.

The way the force dealt with the attack in 2019, and the investigation into officer's actions, has prolonged the pain Carol and her family have been facing.

Following an Old Bailey retrial on January 19, Courtney Ellis was jailed for at least 35 years for Craig Small’s murder and the attempted murder of another person.

Ellis was also convicted of perverting the course of justice alongside Christopher Kyei, from Radlett, Hertfordshire, who was jailed for four-and-a-half years.

Carol Campbell is now not just living with the aftermath of losing her son, but also the emotional toll of waiting for the results of the police investigation.

She told ITV: "My son was my life and the way they took my son, it wasn't right.

"I'm living that every day.

"We just finished the court case, so I'm still going through it and I've still got to go through this in this situation with the police as well."

Craig was not a gang member himself, but was linked with members of two rival gangs and became a target for retaliation.

His mother says he spoke to her about his concerns over violence between rival gangs.

Carol said: "Craig was he was trying to stop all this street negativity that's going on.

"He would speak up for someone and say, 'no you guys stop'.

"It is just the type of son he was."

Carole wants to remember Craig for his love of music and his aspirations to become a talent scout.

She added: "We want to enjoy what life we had with him, not thinking about the sorrow of what happened to him."