Dozens could face criminal charges over London’s 2017 Grenfell Tower inferno
Police seek prosecutions nearly a decade after Britain’s worst modern residential blaze killed 72
British police said on Tuesday they would ask prosecutors to consider charging 57 people and 20 organisations with criminal offences over the Grenfell Tower blaze, almost a decade after the deadliest fire in Britain’s modern history killed dozens.
The Metropolitan Police said files of evidence would be submitted to prosecutors by the end of September, with charging decisions by June 14, 2027 – the 10th anniversary of the London tragedy, which killed 72 people.
Bereaved families and survivors said justice delayed any further would be unacceptable. A damning public inquiry has found that the deaths were avoidable, and that a combination of dishonest companies, incompetent regulators and failures by government led the building to be covered in combustible external cladding.
“We have waited almost a decade for accountability,” said Grenfell United, a group representing some bereaved families. “No family should have to wait over 10 years for justice for their loved ones, if it comes at all.”