Man Jailed for Sharing Photos of Dead Body in London Fire

Omega Mwaikambo pleaded guilty
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 16, 2017 5:54 PM CDT
Man Jailed for Sharing Photos of London Fire Victim
Firefighters on the ladder spray water on the fire-gutted Grenfell Tower in London, Friday, June 16, 2017, after a fire engulfed the 24-story building Wednesday morning.   (Rick Findler/ PA via AP)

A UK man is behind bars for three months after posting pictures of a victim of London's Grenfell Tower fire on Facebook. Omega Mwaikambo, 43, lives in the area and was making tea for firefighters, per his lawyer, when he came across an unattended body in a body bag. The victim is believed to have jumped to his death from the apartment building. He shared one video and two pictures of the body bag, then five pictures of the victim's face and body after he opened the bag, the Telegraph reports. The images have since been taken offline. He pleaded guilty to two counts of sending by a public communications network an offending, indecent, or obscene matter.

"Even the fact of the death would not have been known to the family" at the time the images were posted, said the prosecutor in the case. The victim has still not been identified. Mwaikambo's lawyer said the man "was shocked by the fact the body was there and felt a sense of shock that the body was there unattended" and took the photos to "show how the victim was being treated" after he tried and failed to get someone to come attend to the body. "Does anyone know this body laying outside my flat for more than two hours?" read the caption on his Thursday post, per the Mirror. Still, his lawyer acknowledged it was an "error in judgment" for him to have posted the images. (More Grenfell stories.)

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