Children of woman crushed to death outside Brixton Academy ‘are realising their mother isn’t coming home’

‘With the seven-year-old, you can see the sadness in him’

The children of a Brixton Academy crush victim are now slowly realising that their mother won’t be coming home, according to their grandmother.

Thirty-three-year-old Rebecca Ikumelo died days after the crush in December and now her infant sons, aged seven and five, are beginning to feel her absence acutely, according to her mother.

Yetunde Olodo, 59, told local media that her grandsons are beginning to realise the absence of their mother. “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.”

She continued: “We would ask him ‘where’s mummy?’ and he would say ‘I don’t know’”, she was quoted as saying by Metro.

“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.”

Mother of two, Ikumelo from Newham, East London, died from her injuries after a large number of people tried to enter a concert by Afro-pop singer Asake on 15 December last year.

Her family, at the time, said she was a nursing graduate known for her “care and kindness”.

Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Police on Wednesday announced that a criminal investigation is being conducted into the crush. Earlier, the Metropolitan Police described the incident as “extremely distressing” as footage showed huge crowds outside the popular London nightspot.

The other victim of the crush, Gaby Hutchinson, 23, from Gravesend in Kent also died from the injuries.

Another 21-year-old woman remained in a serious condition in hospital six months after the tragedy.

Meanwhile, Ms Olodo told BBC: “She (Rebecca Ikumelo) was very outgoing, caring, loving. She was an amazing mother. She’s got two young kids, they’re missing their mom. They don’t really know what actually happened to their mom. We really want justice.”

“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,” Ikumelo’s aunt Mary Ikumelo told the local media.