This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Business News Legal Live Business
Police urge more witnesses to come forward in Brixton Academy crowd crush investigation
By Chris Cooke | Published on Thursday 15 June 2023
Six months on from the fatal crowd crush at an Asake show at London’s Brixton Academy, the families of the two people who died, and police who are still investigating the incident, have urged any witnesses yet to come forward with information to do so.
Concert-goer Rebecca Ikumelo and Gaby Hutchinson, who was part of the security team at the show, both died as a result of the crowd crush on 15 Dec. A third person, a 21 year old woman, remains in a serious condition in hospital.
The Brixton Academy has been closed ever since the incident, with London’s Metropolitan Police recommending that Lambeth Council revoke the licence of venue operator the Academy Music Group.
That has led to fears that the venue might close permanently, resulting in a campaign calling on the local authority to ensure that a venue can definitely continue to operate in the building, with new safety measures put in place to ensure last year’s tragic events cannot be repeated.
Meanwhile, police continue their investigation into the circumstances that led to the crowd crush. Speaking to reporters, Chief Inspector Nigel Penney, the senior investigating officer, has confirmed that officers are considering whether there are grounds for various criminal charges in relation to the incident.
That includes, he said, “corporate manslaughter, criminal negligence manslaughter, unlawful act manslaughter and health and safety at work offences, along with violent disorder and offences against the person or assaults”.
He added that he was “extremely confident” that police would successfully identify what caused the crowd crush. However, he said, he still needed more witnesses to come forward with any information or mobile phone footage that could help with the investigation.
Hundreds of witness statements have already been taken, he confirmed, but thousands of people were at the venue on that night. “Come forward with anything you know”, he urged those people.
That call for more witnesses to come forward has been echoed by the families of Ikumelo and Hutchinson in new interviews with the media, including the BBC.
It quotes Hutchinson’s sister Nina as saying: “We’re angry that there are things that haven’t gone right that has led to people dying or being seriously injured, and we just want those people to have justice”.
Meanwhile, Ikumelo’s aunt Mary stated: “We want to know how it happened, we want to know why it happened, and then we just want to know how are we – moving forward – going to prevent this from happening to somebody else’s daughter, mum, sister, niece”.
“All we want is justice, for people to come forward and help us”, she added. “Whatever they know, they should come and tell the police. It’s really, really important for all of us as a community to stand together and to just make sure that this type of thing doesn’t happen again”.
