No justice without people behind bars, says 12-year-old Grenfell victim’s aunt

Sandra Ruiz said lives had been ‘shattered’ by the 2017 blaze.

There can be no justice without people being jailed, the aunt of a child killed in the Grenfell Tower fire has said (Yui Mok/PA) (PA Wire)

Those who put profit above people’s lives must end up behind bars for justice to be served, the aunt of a child killed in the Grenfell Tower fire has said.

Sandra Ruiz said lives had been “shattered” by the 2017 blaze, with her 12-year-old niece Jessica Urbano Ramirez among the 72 people killed.

Ms Ruiz said people must be held to account and that the only justice she can accept is seeing perpetrators jailed for their roles in what happened.

Ahead of the final report being published by the Grenfell Tower Inquiry on Wednesday, she told the PA news agency: “For me, there’s no justice without people going behind bars.

“Our lives were shattered on that night, people need to be held accountable. They know what part they played. The inquiry knows what part they played. And the police know what part they played. Now they (police) just need to take some action about it.

“People who have made decisions putting profit above people’s safety need to be behind bars.”

In May, the Metropolitan Police said their investigators need until the end of 2025 to finalise their inquiry, and prosecutors will then need a year to decide whether charges can be brought.

Bereaved and survivors have described that wait, which could stretch to a decade after the catastrophic fire, as “unbearable”.

Ms Ruiz said: “Let’s not drag this out another seven years, it doesn’t need to be, the evidence is there, it’s been shared with the police all along the whole process, they’ve had seven years to work on this, parallel to the inquiry.”

Echoing the call for charges to be brought as speedily as possible, former Tower resident Edward Daffarn said the report will be “full of evidence” the police and prosecutors need to use.

He said: “We understand that the Met Police are asking for a little bit of time to respond to the findings of the report, but we’ve already been waiting seven years.

“We’re not prepared to wait for much longer, and this report needs to be the catalyst for significant movement forward from the Met Police in bringing charges against people who perpetrated the deaths of 72 people.”

On what justice means for him, Mr Daffarn said he wants to see “perpetrators before the courts, whether it’s around health and safety, whether it’s around fire safety order, whether it’s around corporate manslaughter, whether it’s around fraud and mis-selling, or misconduct in public office”.

According to an update from police and prosecutors earlier this year, the mammoth police investigation into the fire has already generated 27,000 lines of inquiry and more than 12,000 witness statements.

A total of 58 individuals and 19 companies and organisations are under investigation for potential criminal offences, and more than 300 hours of interviews have taken place.

Potential offences under consideration include corporate manslaughter, gross negligence manslaughter, perverting the course of justice, misconduct in public office, health and safety offences, fraud, and offences under the fire safety and building regulations.