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Grenfell Criminal Investigation Could Take Years, Met Commissioner Cressida Dick Says
The police’s criminal investigation into the Grenfell Tower fire is likely to last until 2019 at the earliest and could even take several years to complete, the Metropolitan Police commissioner said on Wednesday.
Cressida Dick said it will take a “considerable period of time” to go through the interviews and evidence the force has collected in the past six months.
Relatives of the victims have told HuffPost UK that the most important thing was for police conduct a thorough investigation, with one adding it represented “our last hope”.
Metropolitan Police Service relayed the enormity of the scale of the investigation to the London Assembly earlier today.
Dick added that she had requested extra government funding for the police operation to help cover the costs of the criminal investigation.
Her comments come after the first hearings of the long-awaited public inquiry were held this week.
The procedural sessions, held on Monday and Tuesday, focussed on issues including how documents should be disclosed to “core participants”, including residents, survivors and relatives of those who died in the blaze on June 14.
Scotland Yard announced on Monday that they are investigating misconduct in public office charges as well as breaches of fire safety regulations, manslaughter and corporate manslaughter.
In an update to London Assembly members, Dick said: “I think we will be looking at the best part of next year before we finish all the reconstruction and forensic examination.
“As you know there are a very, very, very large number of people and records to either take statements from or either examine forensically so I’m not going to put a timescale on that.”
The public inquiry and criminal investigation can run parallel to one another.
A spokesperson for the Grenfell Tower inquiry said in a statement: “The public inquiry and the Metropolitan Police Service investigation are independent of each other and each is being conducted under separate legal powers.
“The inquiry has a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Police.
“This MoU formalises the arrangement for sharing information with the Met Police and will enable the Inquiry to proceed and use relevant evidence that is obtained in the course of the police investigation, but in a manner that does not risk or prejudice their investigation or any subsequent criminal proceedings.”
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