Five men handed themselves over to police on Monday night and they have yet to be formally identified by authorities
A furious Piers Morgan has called for the identities of the five suspects filmed laughing and shouting “Help me! Help me!” and “Jump out the window!” as they burnt an effigy of Grenfell tower to be made public.
Speaking Tuesday morning, the Good Morning Britain presenter described the video that emerged on social media on Monday as “one of the most disgusting things he had ever watched in his life” and that the group handing themselves into the police was “a trick” to avoid being named publically.
The group of five men – aged between 19 and 55 – presented themselves at a police station in south London on Monday night after the Met police launched a manhunt to find those pictured in the footage.
The suspects have yet to be identified by authorities. However, Morgan promised to personally name and shame them, telling ITV viewers: “If we get the names, we’re going to name them and say who they are. What they need is to be named and shamed, and for everyone who lives around them to know what they’re like, to know what these people are capable of.
“This is one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever watched in my entire life. These people do not deserve to be in this country. It’s unfathomable. How can you do that to the people who lost their lives at Grenfell, who still haven’t been housed because they lost their homes at Grenfell?
“What kind of twisted mind thinks this is funny? Putting an effigy of a baby on a model of the tower and setting it alight? Knowing that babies died in that fire? What has the world come to, seriously? It’s disgusting.”
(Credit: Kay Oldroyd)
Seventy-two people were killed in the Grenfell inferno last June with the footage of the effigy burning being widely condemned on social media, including by Prime Minister Theresa May who said it as “utterly unacceptable”.
Launching into a tirade against those behind the bonfire on Good Morning Britain, Morgan described the footage as “the worst kind of vile racism”.
“It’s vomit making. It should be a police matter, this should be a criminal offence,” he added.
“You can be arrested now for saying bad things on Twitter. This is far worse. The entire world has seen this. The Washington Post just published a story about this video. What is going on in Britain?
“How can this be happening? How can people do this? Let’s find out who they are, I want to name and shame them.
“And if I commit an offence by doing that? Good – I’ll go to prison, quite happily.”
In a statement released on Tuesday morning, police confirmed that the suspects remained in custody following their arrest with the Met’s Grenfell Tower investigation team leading enquiries.
