MANSLAUGHTER
Just SIX weeks after Grenfell inferno, police say council and tenant body could face death charges
POLICE have found ‘reasonable grounds’ to consider corporate manslaughter charges over the Grenfell inferno.
In a letter to survivors, officers said Kensington and Chelsea council and the tenant management association that ran the tower ‘may have committed the offence’. The dramatic development means town hall chiefs face police interviews over accusations they ignored repeated safety warnings.
A residents’ group had predicted it would take a catastrophe to end ‘the dangerous living conditions and neglect of health and safety’.
Cheap combustible cladding installed on the 24-storey tower during refurbishment last year has been widely blamed for the fire’s rapid spread. The speed of the police announcement – just six weeks after the tragedy – shows the pressure on senior officers to hold those responsible to account.
Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell was accused of using the tragedy for party gain when he said the 80 victims were ‘murdered by political decisions’.
The authorities have also been criticised for their slow response to the tragedy – with comparisons made to the Hillsborough disaster and that three-decade fight for justice.
Corporate manslaughter charges are brought against organisations alone and individuals cannot be arrested. It is punishable by an unlimited fine.
In the letter to survivors, released last night, Scotland Yard said: ‘There are reasonable grounds to suspect that each organisation may have committed the offence of corporate manslaughter.
‘In due course, a senior representative of each corporation will be formally interviewed by police in relation to the
potential offence.’ Police said they would continue to investigate whether other crimes were committed – either by organisations or individuals.
Separately to corporate manslaughter, officials such as company directors can be charged and prosecuted under health and safety laws, including manslaughter by gross negligence, which can carry an 18-year jail sentence.
David Duckenfield, the South Yorkshire police officer who was in charge of the Hillsborough stadium in 1989, has been charged with this offence.
Police refused to reveal who would be interviewed as part of the corporate manslaughter investigation.
Grenfell Tower was owned by the council but its management was outsourced to the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management organisation.
The council’s £193,000-a-year chief executive nicholas Holgate and the boss of the tenant management organisation, Robert Black, both resigned in the aftermath of the fire.
Council leader nicholas Paget-Brown and his deputy Rock Feilding-Mellen, who was the councillor responsible for housing and regeneration, also resigned.
‘We want them prosecuted’
All four could still be interviewed by police. The 2007 Corporate Manslaughter Act says an organisation is guilty of the offence if its conduct ‘causes a person’s death and amounts to a gross breach of a relevant duty of care owed by the organisation to the deceased’.
The refurbishment was overseen by building firm Rydon but police have identified more than 60 organisations involved in the construction, management or refurbishment at Grenfell.
Residents had approved plans for fire resistant cladding but it was replaced by a cheaper aluminium version.
Survivors’ groups welcomed the police letter but warned that even multi-million pound fines would not bring justice.
‘What we want is individuals named and prosecuted – we don’t want corporate manslaughter on its own,’ said Yvette Williams, of Justice 4 Grenfell. ‘ People implement policy, people make decisions, people took particular actions and those people are responsible. You can’t put corporate organisations in the dock, you put individuals.’
Labour MP David Lammy said: ‘Gross negligence manslaughter carries a punishment of prison time and I hope that the police and prosecutors are considering charges of manslaughter by gross negligence.’
Elizabeth Campbell, the newly elected leader of Kensington and Chelsea council, said it would cooperate with the police investigation, adding: ‘our residents deserve answers.’
Residents had warned the council and its management organisation about a catalogue of safety fears for years before the blaze, including warnings about blocked fire escapes, faulty extinguishers and huge electricity power surges. In november, they wrote to the management group saying: ‘The Grenfell Action Group firmly believes that only a catastrophic event will expose the ineptitude and incompetence of our landlord, the KCTMo, and bring an end to the dangerous living conditions and neglect of health and safety legislation that they inflict upon their tenants and leaseholders.
‘only an incident that results in serious loss of life of KCTMo residents will allow the external scrutiny to occur that will shine a light on the practices that characterise the malign governance of this non-functioning organisation.’ Survivors say the council ignored their warnings because they were among the most disadvantaged residents in the affluent west London borough.
Public meetings have seen council leaders branded as murderers and residents have demanded the resignation of the chairman of the public inquiry, Sir Martin MooreBick, who is a former Appeal Court judge.
Work to begin covering the charred shell of the building is due to begin next month although police say the operation to recover human remains will last into autumn.