There may not be any prosecutions over Grenfell, police chief admits

THERE is no guarantee anyone will face criminal charges over the Grenfell Tower fire, a police chief said yesterday.

Stuart Cundy said 180 officers were working ‘diligently’ on the evidence relating to the deaths of 72 people in June 2017. However the Scotland Yard commander admitted he could not promise bereaved families court action.

Police will not consider sending any files to the Crown Prosecution Service until at least 2021. This means the earliest date for a trial would be 2022.

Ahead of the two-year anniversary of the blaze on Friday, Mr Cundy said: ‘We will do everything that is within our power to fully investigate and to identify whether criminal offences have been committed. But equally we know there is no guarantee that we can give that there will be criminal charges.

‘What there is a guarantee of is that the bereaved and survivors have our absolute personal commitment to do what we can to make sure this investigation is fearless, secures all the evidence that it can and puts that evidence before the Crown Prosecution Service.’ He said police and the CPS had agreed that no criminal charges could be brought until the end of the multi-million pound inquiry which is scheduled to finish in 2021.

Investigators have 45million documents to sift through, using software to search for keywords before detectives read through the material.

So far they have logged around 14,000 exhibits including construction materials, photos, CCTV footage and personal items from flats. Around 200 companies involved with the tower are of relevance to the investigation.