Bystander who opened body bag of dead Grenfell Tower victim to take picture has been jailed

A bystander, who opened the body bag then took a photo of a man who died after leaping from the Grenfell Tower fire, before posting the image to Facebook, has been jailed today for three months.

Police spotted the horrific images and video footage posted to social media by Omega Mwaikambo, who was later arrested and charged with two counts of sending by a public communications network an offending, indecent or obscene matter.

The 43-year-old appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court on Friday (16 June) after the images were posted online on Wednesday morning after the tragedy took the lives of at least 30 people, with the death toll expected to rise.

It is believed that the image showed a resident who made a desperate attempt to flee the flames by jumping out of the block, but died and was lying under the plastic body bag sheeting.

One of the pictures was captioned "Does any one know this body laying outside my flat for more than two hours?"

Mwaikambo, who lives just yards away from the tower, pleaded guilty to the charges had made cups of tea for firefighters as they battled the blaze on the night of the fire.

But as the day wore on he opened a body bag outside his flat and took photos on his iPad before posting them online.

After he was arrested police demanded the pin for his iPad and found the images which were then deleted.

Prosecutor Tom Little said, according to The Sun: "He uploaded photographs and video of the deceased inside the body bag and then five photographs of the upper body and the face and the blood that had drained from the body.

"It appears as if that individual might have been someone that jumped from the tower and had not survived and was waiting to be moved to the coroner's mortuary."

The court heard the victim has yet to be identified, but many people posted angry reactions to what Mwaikambo had done in posting images.

In mitigation Michelle Denney argued that Mwaikambo was very remorseful, had seen a lot of horrible things that night and was shocked that an unattended body was outside his home.

On the same day residents stormed The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea offices to demand action and the Queen spoke to residents of the flats.

Sentencing, District Judge Tanweer Ikram said: "The whole country, if not the whole world, has been shocked by what has taken place in the last few days in relation to the fire at Grenfell Tower.

"The horror is not to be underestimated. The dignity of the dead must always be respected. What you have done by uploading those photos shows absolutely no respect to this poor victim. To show his face as he lies there is beyond words.

"That view is shared in the horror and disgust that is shown by those people that have uploaded messages on your profile."

Mwaikambo, of Testerton Walk, was handed six weeks for each charge to run consecutively and ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £115 and costs of £85.