‘Grenfell ghoul’ cleared after evidence blunders
Judge’s fury as key interviews with police are only revealed as she is about to give verdict
A PROPERTY millionaire who filmed an effigy of Grenfell Tower being burned was cleared yesterday after blunders meant key evidence had not been revealed.
Paul Bussetti, 47, was accused of ‘making a mockery’ of the 72 victims of the inferno after a video of the bonfire was posted on YouTube last year.
In the clip, a group of men and women laugh and shout ‘help me’ and ‘jump out of the window’ as the cardboard effigy and its figures are engulfed in flames.
Prosecutors argued the video was grossly offensive and fuelled by racist humour, insisting the figures on the side of the model depicted black and Muslim occupants of the tower.
But as the judge was preparing to give her verdict, at the end of a ninemonth criminal investigation, it dramatically emerged that two key police interviews that supported the defence had never been disclosed to Mr Bussetti’s legal team.
Mr Bussetti, co-owner of an £8million block of flats in south-west London, had told Westminster magistrates’ court the incident was intended as a joke. He said the figures on the side of the effigy were actually mocking versions of his friends.
The father of two was charged with sending an offensive communication after sharing the video to two WhatsApp chat groups.
A second video was filmed by another partygoer, Peter Hancock, and this was also shared with friends. One of the two videos was then leaked on YouTube, sparking outrage.
Yesterday, Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot cleared Mr Bussetti because she could not be sure that it was his video on YouTube.
The judge was deeply critical of Scotland Yard and the Crown Prosecution Service over failures to disclose key evidence to the defence. The maker of the effigy, Steve Bull, and Mr Hancock, had both told the Metropolitan Police that the model figures were intended to depict their friends.
Mr Hancock also told officers that he had filmed the bonfire and sent that clip to friends. He has never faced criminal prosecution and was not called to give evidence.
Upon hearing the fresh evidence, the judge cleared Mr Bussetti because the prosecution had failed to prove the case against him.
‘I can’t be sure the video relied on by the Crown is the one taken by the defendant’, she said. ‘I can’t be sure the cut-out images are not his friends. I’m just appalled at the disclosure in this case.’ Judge Arbuthnot said it was only the vigilance of prosecutor Philip Stott that had averted a ‘potential miscarriage of justice’, as she demanded a full explanation.
Defence barrister Mark Summers QC said in light of the revelations: ‘[It is] outrageous that anyone knowing this sat through the cross-examination and let it continue.’
During the trial, racist messages Mr Bussetti, from South London, had received and shared were shown. But Mrs Arbuthnot said they were not enough to ‘fill the holes’ in the prosecution, and he denied being racist.
The fiasco comes after a string of sexual assault cases collapsed when evidence emerged at the last minute.
‘I’m appalled at the disclosure’