Plea for help from relatives of those who died after Brixton Academy crush
Metropolitan Police Detective Chief Inspector Nigel Penney says a criminal investigation is being conducted involving a range of potential offences.
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The infant sons of a concertgoer who died following a crowd crush outside the O2 Academy Brixton six months ago are starting to realise their mother is not coming home, family members have said.
Rebecca Ikumelo, 33, of Newham, east London, and security worker Gaby Hutchinson, 23, of Gravesend, Kent, who was on duty at the south London venue, died days after being hurt when ticketless fans tried to get into a show by Nigerian Afrobeats artist Asake in December.
A 21-year-old woman is still seriously ill in hospital.
Trying to grieve is being made harder without answers as to why the crush happened, according to the bereaved relatives, who are calling on people to come forward with information to help the police investigation.
Their appeal comes as Metropolitan Police Detective Chief Inspector Nigel Penney revealed a criminal investigation is being conducted involving a range of potential offences such as “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”.
It is dawning on Ms Ikumelo’s sons, aged seven and five, that something is wrong, according to their grandmother Yetunde Olodo, 59.
She told PA news agency: “With the seven year-old you can see the sadness in him. I don’t know if he understands it but he feels it because he is not seeing his mum around.
“We would ask him ‘where’s mummy?’ and he would say ‘I don’t know’.
“The little one used to say ‘she went to grandma’s house’ but yesterday he said ‘she went away’, but he does not know where.
“They don’t understand what is happening but I am sure they are really feeling their mum’s absence.”
There are plenty of photographs of her around and “they are also always watching videos, but the first one is really feeling it more”, the grandmother said.
Ms Ikumelo’s brother Wale Ikumelo, 31, said that “at first it was a quick shrug, but now so many months have gone past and you can see the boys are picking at their brains and saying `where is my mum?'”
A basic sense of “compassion” and “respect” for the families means that everyone involved – from the artists, the off-stage crew and corporate interests – should help with the investigation to find out what went wrong, according to Ms Ikumelo’s father Anthony, 63.
To do otherwise and to try and organise further concerts and events is a “further slap” to the relatives.
He added: “It feels like greed is one of the reasons why my daughter died and why all the things that should have been in place for safety were not there.
“This is why everyone should be working with us, from the Government down to find out what happened and to prevent it from happening again.
“We want those responsible prosecuted and eventually we want the Government to make sure this will not happen to another family again.”
Questions over safety and security need to be answered, according to Ms Ikumelo’s aunt Mary, who said it was “a stampede and it is not the first time this has happened in the UK”.
She said: “We are very angry and upset. The people who think that maybe they are going to get away with this – they need to be scared because we will never stop as a family until justice prevails.
“She (Rebecca) deserves justice, (Gaby) deserves justice and there is another lady who has been in intensive – she deserves justice. Rebecca’s children deserve justice. This is just not acceptable.
“The reality is that other concerts are happening and they are putting things in place for them to be safe, so why didn’t they do the same for this?
“It should not be that you go to a concert and then die.”
Ms Hutchinson’s mother Chris, 60, who also has safety concerns, stated that Gaby’s security work meant she “was trained to walk around the perimeter and that was it”.
She added: “Why was she inside? Why was there so many people? Why were there so many people turning up? The venue was full and you have got people outside wanting to get in.”
Her daughter died at a time when was “really in a happy place at last” with her life which included plans to get married, having started IVF and a holiday.
Ms Hutchinson’s sister Nina, 32, added: “She did not die of any underlying health problems.
“She did not die because of an accident like a car accident. She died at work and that should not have happened.
“We used to go to concerts and now we don’t want to go. We don’t want to be in spaces that could be too crowded because we are worried that could happen (again). I know it is a once-in-a-lifetime thing that it could ever occur again but it has happened to us and has left a fear embedded in us.”
She added: “I hope that for the people who were selling supposedly dodgy tickets that was worth it to them because ultimately it is (part of) what led to my sister’s death.
“There would not have been that excess of people there who did not have tickets, if you did not do that.”
Mr Penney said: “This is being treated as a criminal investigation.
“We do have persons of interest that we are looking into. It is a very complicated and broad investigation.
“We are looking at every avenue to establish exactly what went wrong. There are many people and organisations involved in this investigation that could provide further information to us.
“There were hundreds of people there filming the incident on their mobile phones – we don’t have hundreds of pieces of social media, so however insignificant it is we want people to come forward with whatever they have.”