UK: No charges likely over Grenfell Tower blaze until 2021

LONDON – Police investigating a blaze that killed 72 people in a London tower block two years ago say no one is likely to face criminal charges until 2021.

The Metropolitan Police force says it will wait until a public inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire is completed and won’t be able to deliver a file to prosecutors before “the latter part of 2021.”

Detective Superintendent Matt Bonner, who is heading the investigation, says “it would be wrong not to take into account evidence given to the public inquiry and its final report and findings.”

Police are considering individual and corporate manslaughter charges over the June 2017 blaze, which started in an apartment kitchen and engulfed the 24-story residential building.

The Grenfell United survivors’ group called the delay “extremely frustrating and disheartening.”