We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info

A detective told a coroner there is a “strong possibility” the death of two people during a crush at the O2 Brixton Academy will lead to criminal charges.

Security guard Gaby Hutchinson, 23, and nurse Rebecca Ikumelo, 33, died from their injuries after fans surged to try to get into a show at the venue on December 15.

Gaby died at St Thomas’ Hospital on December 19 while Rebecca died at Kings College Hospital on December 17.

At a brief hearing at Southwark Coroner’s Court this morning, senior coroner Andrew Harris called the senior investigating officer to give an update on the Metropolitan Police’s investigation.

Detective Constable Inspector Nigel Penney said the investigation was a “vast and complicated process” involving watching hundreds of hours of CCTV footage.

He said: “It’s a huge investigation where we are now currently tracking and tracing hundreds of witnesses that saw the events that unfolded.”

He said the force were looking into the “mechanism of how so many people arrived at the front doors of that building and managed to ingress into the foyer area”.

Asked whether the investigation might lead to criminal charges, DCI Penney said: “The position is that there is a strong possibility there will be criminal charges in the future pending a full investigation.”

The court was packed with Ms Ikumelo’s family members and friends while the coroner said Ms Hutchinson’s family had chosen not to attend.

Gaby, who went by they/them pronouns, was a security dog handler, it was said.

The coroner heard a pathologist recorded a provisional cause of death for Gaby, of Gravesend, Kent, as “interference with the normal mechanics of breathing”.

Rebecca, a nurse from Newham, east London, was given a provisional cause of death as “compression, asphyxia”.

The coroner ruled the bodies could be released to the families after their organs had been released from testing.

Mr Harris adjourned the full inquests until the police investigation has completed, which he told the court “could take some years.”

Source: Read Full Article