Brixton Academy Crush: Families appeal for information one year on from deadly Asake concert

Relatives of the two people killed at O2 Brixton Academy in south west London have renewed their appeal for information one year on from the deadly crush. Security guard Gaby Hutchinson, 23, and Rebecca Ikumelo, 33, were killed when fans without tickets tried to force their way into a show by Nigerian artist Asake on December 15 2022.

The venue faced permanent closure after the Metropolitan Police urged the council to remove its licence but following a two-day hearing in September, Lambeth Council’s licensing sub-committee voted to allow the venue to continue operating – so long as it meets “77 extensive and robust new conditions”.

On Friday, the Met released CCTV images of people they wish to speak to in relation to the incident, also revealing that one arrest had been made, while Ms Hutchinson’s sisters Kelsey and Nina and Ms Ikumelo’s parents Yetunde Olodo and Anthony Ikumelo issued a renewed appeal for information.

Calling his daughter an “angel”, Mr Ikumelo, 63, of Canning Town, said there “are still lots of questions to be answered”. He urged anyone with information to come forward, adding: “We don’t know what happened to her, we don’t know how she died and we’re still waiting for information as to how this happened. The most important thing is we don’t want this to happen to another family, so the earlier we have this information the better so that other people could be prevented from suffering the same loss in future.”

Ms Olodo, 60, of Stratford, added: “We just want justice. She has two young children, they are asking questions now ‘Where is mummy? When is mummy coming back?’ What can we tell them? They are only five and seven, they don’t seem to understand what is happening. All we want is justice for Rebecca, for people to come forward and say what they know about the incident.”

Kelsey Hutchinson, 26, of Billericay, Essex, said: “The key message is to not forget what happened at Brixton Academy and not let it happen again. The important thing is to get people to come forward. What we want is for the investigations to continue and to get some justice for Gaby.

"I don’t think in this situation there is such a thing as closure. We spent our whole lives with Gaby and we had a whole life to give, so I think if there is such a thing as closure it’s just what would Gaby have wanted from this situation and that’s to protect other people going forward.”

Nina, 32, of Gravesend, added: “A time machine would be great. If we could go back to before then and tell her not to go to work, but that’s not going to happen so it is just doing what we need to do as a family.”

Kelsey said she feels “heartbroken” one year one, adding: “It’s like having an emptiness in your chest, like the world is now upside down and wrong. Just living is hard, really hard.” She also called on Asake to issue his own appeal to fans with information to come forward.

She added: “As of current, the singer has never made a formal acknowledgment of our family. Obviously, he’s done several concerts mentioning Gaby and Rebecca but I think the main thing is the singer has such a big influence over his crowd and his followers, and I think the biggest way anyone could help the police is if the singer asked them to come forward with what they heard that night, what they recorded, anything will help and the singer’s got the most power in this situation. Gaby was special. She was really funny. She was smart, intelligent, loyal, she was everyone’s best friend and would do anything for anyone. She loved her family and we loved her back.”

The Met’s senior investigating officer, Detective Chief Inspector Nigel Penney, said: “We’re keen to address the tragic incident that happened 12 months ago with our investigation, and we want to let people know that we are still tirelessly working extremely hard, trying to ascertain the actual detail of how this tragic event happened.

“We are continuing our plea to those that did attend that night to come forward and tell us exactly what they saw. We can share we have made arrests, we have conducted interviews, into certain individuals, certain companies that we believe are connected with the tragedy. And we also have an appeal with regard to some individuals that we would like to speak to in connection with events that happened on the 15th (of December 2022) and this is why we are circulating CCTV images of those individuals to the community.

“We have made one arrest and we’ve conducted four interviews. The arrest was made in October.”

About 1,000 people were outside the venue and police found “large-scale disorder” with crowds eventually pushing the doors open, according to Gerald Gouriet KC, who represented the Met at an earlier licensing meeting. Representatives of Asake have been approached for comment.