The truth about Zane Gbangbola

 Guest blog post, by Nigel Gilbert of Betrayed By Their [NHS] Trust

 

Ingra and I joined over 200 other people last night in a Zoom meeting organised by the parents of the late Zane Gbangbola, who would have been 14 yesterday had he lived.. 

Zane died due to flood water entering the basement of the family home by the Thames in early 2014 and releasing Hydrogen Cyanide. Since then the bereaved parents have been compelled to fight a campaign to obtain the truth from a corrupt establishment of many agencies which stand shoulder to shoulder denying justice to them.

The basic facts are that the fire services detected Hydrogen Cyanide at the home. Matt Wrack leader of the Fire Brigades Union spoke last night to confirm this. Yet right from the start there was denial. It was claimed that the death was caused by Carbon Monoxide caused by a faulty generator in the house. No such generator was running. It was denied that there was ever a landfill site behind the house. The inquest ruled accidental death caused by Carbon Monoxide poisoning. 

Since then it has been established that there was a landfill site perfectly well known to the authorities, who allowed houses to be built. It was even recognised four years before Zane's death that it posed a threat to life. But the only reaction of the authorities was to provide gas protection to their own properties. 

At the inquest Zane's parents faced a phalanx of lawyers, but they themselves were denied legal aid.

Professor Phil Scraton, who was involved in the Hillsboro inquiry and wrote a book on it, drew parallels with the corrupt response to that disaster. Multiple agencies denied the truth. 

The meeting last night called for an inquiry panel with full disclosure. Damningly this inquiry must be independent of the state and need look at documents only. This implies the abject corruption of the state.

Those of us involved in BBTT will be unsurprised by any of this. We are used to the denials of multiple agencies, the corruption of inquests etc.

The Labour Party is very supportive. Richard Burgon and David Lammy spoke last night. Starmer and Burnham have also been supportive. But you will recall that justice for Zane was specified in Corbyn's manifesto. His successors will get the credit but I wonder whether they will attend to the issue of widespread corruption or just treat the case as a one-off. 

The campaign has a website.

Nigel