A man jailed for posting distressing pictures of a dead body on Facebook in the wake of the Grenfell Tower inferno has claimed he ‘did nothing wrong’.
Omega Mwaikambo, 43, told BBC Newsnight he knew it was ‘morally wrong’ to take pictures of the loosely covered body hours after the blaze struck the block of flats in Kensington in June.
He posted one video and two pictures of the body bag with the man inside and then later five pictures of the victim’s face and body after opening it to look inside.
Omega Mwaikambo told the BBC he had been ‘traumatised’ by what he had seen, describing the blaze near his home as being like 9/11 but ‘real in front of my eyes’
The 43-year-old, who lives just yards away from the tower, had watched the blaze engulf the building throughout the night
But he told the programme he had been ‘traumatised’ by what he had seen, describing the blaze near his home as being like 9/11 but ‘real in front of my eyes’.
Mwaikambo, who lives just yards away from the tower, had watched the blaze engulf the building throughout the night and had made cups of tea for firefighters as they battled the blaze.
However hours later he saw a body bag outside his flat – believed to have been a victim who leapt to his death from the inferno – and took the photos on his iPad and uploaded them to Facebook.
He said: ‘I took the picture, I didn’t do anything wrong, just a picture. I didn’t steal, I didn’t kill. I didn’t commit any crime that I know is … high risk.’
He posted one video and two pictures of the body bag with the man inside and then later five pictures of the victim’s face and body after opening it to look inside
He added: ‘I couldn’t believe it (the sentence) was that long. Not that I was expecting a short time but that length of period of time to be in prison really shocked me.’
At least 80 people were killed in the disaster in West London, currently the subject of a public inquiry led by Sir Martin Moore-Bick.
Mwaikambo, who lives in Testerton Walk, close to the base of the Grenfell Tower, pleaded guilty to two counts of sending by a public communications network an offending, indecent or obscene matter.
He was sentenced to six weeks for each offence, to be served consecutively.
He told Newsnight he used his iPad to take pictures when he came across the body close to his home.
Mwaikambo pictured here being arrested by police officers after he posted images of a Grenfell Tower victim on Facebook
Mwaikambo claimed seeing the body bag near his home ‘really messed his head up’
He said he accepted people would be angry at what he did at 5am on June 14, and he felt ‘so bad’.
But he added: ‘I was in and out of my senses but I was really struggling to compose myself.
‘That body was not meant to be there in the first place, regardless of what … I could understand that there was something massive happening outside, but it should not be kept in that place, in a patch of dirty water. That really messed my head up.’