By Sam Tobin
LONDON, May 19 (Reuters) – British prosecutors said on Tuesday that they were confident of announcing who might face criminal charges over the 2017 blaze that ravaged London’s Grenfell Tower and killed 72 people before next June, the 10th anniversary of the disaster.
The fire was Britain’s deadliest in a residential building since World War Two and prompted a national reckoning over building standards and the safety and conditions of social housing for low-income communities.
A public inquiry’s final report in 2024 blamed the disaster on failings by the government, the construction industry and, most of all, the firms involved in fitting the exterior with flammable cladding, which had been marketed as safe.
57 PEOPLE REMAIN SUSPECTS
At a briefing for reporters on Tuesday, Garry Moncrieff, the officer in overall command of the police investigation, said 57 people and 20 companies or organisations “remain as suspects” for offences including corporate and gross negligence manslaughter, fraud and health and safety offences.
He said detectives would hand over files of evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) by the end of September for it to consider what charges should be brought.
“When something that’s this complex and so hugely significant, it’s really important that we get this investigation right … to enable the CPS to take those charging decisions,” said Moncrieff.
He acknowledged it had taken years to reach this stage, saying they could not begin to understand the impact it had had on the bereaved, the survivors, and all those affected.
Frank Ferguson, Chief Crown Prosecutor for the CPS, which previously said it hoped to make charging decisions by the end of this year, said that “it is not possible to be definitive about timescales”, but he was “confident” these would take place by the 10th anniversary.
ELECTRICAL FAULT IN FRIDGE
Started by an electrical fault in a refrigerator, the fire ripped through the 23-storey social housing apartment block in the early hours of June 14, 2017.
A massive police investigation – the largest and most complex ever undertaken in the history of the London force – was launched shortly afterwards, but detectives said no criminal charges would be brought until the end of the public inquiry into the disaster.
Grenfell United, a group which represents some of the bereaved families and survivors, said the process had already taken far too long.
“For our community, this is not news we meet with celebration,” it said in a statement. “We have waited almost a decade for accountability. No family should have to wait over 10 years for justice for their loved ones, if it comes at all.”
Britain subsequently said it would investigate companies involved in the refurbishment of Grenfell Tower with a view to stopping some firms being awarded public contracts, though companies have largely avoided financial liability.
Last year, the government began the process of demolishing parts of the building, with plans for a memorial also expected to be announced this year.
(Reporting by Sam Tobin; writing by Michael Holden; editing by Sarah Young and Hugh Lawson)
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