Police have launched a corporate manslaughter probe into the crowd crush at the O2 Academy Brixton as it emerged one victim’s young sons are asking: “Where’s mummy?”
Rebecca Ikumelo, 33, and security worker Gaby Hutchinson, 23, were fatally injured when ticketless fans tried to force their way into a concert by Nigerian Afrobeats artist Asake in December.
A 21-year-old woman is still seriously ill in hospital. All three had been in the foyer of the building in south London.
In an interview, Ms Ikumelo’s mother Yetunde Olodo, 59, said her grandsons Jamael, seven, and five-year-old Joellle are starting to realise she isn’t returning to their home in Newham, east London.
Ms Olodo said: “With the seven year-old you can see the sadness in him. I don’t know if he understands it but he feels it because he is not seeing his mum around.
“We would ask him ‘where’s mummy?’ and he would say ‘I don’t know’.
“The little one used to say ‘she went to grandma’s house’ but yesterday he said ‘she went away’, but he does not know where.
“They don’t understand what is happening but I am sure they are really feeling their mum’s absence.”
The family have made a photobook and watch videos, but Jamael “is really feeling it more”.
Wale Ikumelo, 31, the autism awareness campaigner’s brother, said that “at first it was a quick shrug, but now so many months have gone past and you can see the boys are picking at their brains and saying ‘where is my mum?’”
Ms Ikumelo had dropped the children off at their grandmother’s home with their school uniforms before heading to the show with a friend on December 15.
Her father Anthony, 63, called on Asake, real name is Ahmed Ololade, his management and off-stage crew to further assist the police with what went wrong.
Comparing him to Ariana Grande, who cancelled her tour after the 2017 Manchester suicide bombing, he said it “does not resonate well” singer-songwriter Asake is due to perform at Greenwich’s larger O2 Arena in August.
Mr Ikumelo said organisers delivered the “biggest slap” to bereaved relatives, adding: “It feels like greed is one of the reasons why my daughter died and why all the things that should have been in place for safety were not there.
“This is why everyone should be working with us, from the Government down to find out what happened and to prevent it from happening again.
“We want those responsible prosecuted and eventually we want the Government to make sure this will not happen to another family again.”
Ms Ikumelo’s aunt Mary, 39, added the family needed answers to questions over safety, adding: “It should not be that you go to a concert and then die.
“We are very angry and upset. The people who think that maybe they are going to get away with this – they need to be scared because we will never stop as a family until justice prevails.”
Ms Hutchinson’s mother Chris, 60, who also has safety concerns, stated that dog handler Gaby’s security work meant she “was trained to walk around the perimeter and that was it”.
She added: “Why was she inside? Why was there so many people? Why were there so many people turning up? The venue was full and you have got people outside wanting to get in.”
Her daughter died at a time when was “really in a happy place at last” with her life which included plans to get married to girlfriend Phoebie Turley, the couple having started IVF.
Mrs Hutchinson, of Gravesend, Kent stayed by her daughter’s bedside at St Thomas’s Hospital until life support was switched off after four days.
“It’s not real,” she said breaking down. “You still expect her to walk through the door and she doesn’t.”
Ms Hutchinson’s sister Nina, 32, added: “She was killed at work. She did not die of any underlying health problems.
“She did not die because of an accident. She died at work and that should not have happened.
“I hope that for the people who were selling supposedly dodgy tickets that was worth it to them because ultimately you’ve led to my sister’s death.
“There would not have been that excess of people there who did not have tickets, if you did not do that.”
Metropolitan Police Detective Chief Inspector Nigel Penney revealed a criminal investigation is being conducted involving a range of potential allegations including corporate manslaughter, criminal negligence manslaughter, unlawful act manslaughter and health and safety at work offences along with violent disorder and assault.
DCI Penney said: “We’re in the business of finding out facts, establishing the truth and seeking justice.
“We do have persons of interest that we are looking into. It is a very complicated and broad investigation.
“We are looking at every avenue to establish exactly what went wrong. There are many people and organisations involved in this investigation that could provide further information to us.
“There were hundreds of people there filming the incident on their mobile phones – we don’t have hundreds of pieces of social media, so however insignificant it is we want people to come forward with whatever they have.”
Asake and O2 Academy Brixton were approached for comment.
The venue’s licence was suspended by Lambeth councillors. The Met is urging the council to permanently close it, but an online petition to save the academy has surpassed 113,000 signatures.
