Mother-of-two Rebecca Ikumelo, 33, and security guard Gaby Hutchinson, 23, died in hospital in December following a crush at the venue. They were at the Academy for a performance by Afro pop star Asake, where witnesses described hundreds of people trying to get into the show despite the fact that the venue was already full. According to a whistleblower who spoke to the BBC’s File on Four, some members of his team would regularly allow “a couple of hundred” extra people into venues in exchange for money. There were people taking money… some staff made £1,000 cash,” the guard claimed. He said that if someone wanted to get into a show without a ticket, they should approach security personnel stationed near the barriers that control the line of people waiting to enter. Cash would be handed over “around the corner,” and a security guard would “walk you straight in the front door,” he claimed. The guard, who did not want to be named, said taking bribes also took place at other venues, stadiums and festivals where he had worked. The amount of money handed over varied according to who was playing. On December 15, the whistleblower was working on the front doors at Brixton Academy when the fatal crush occurred. “It was like being in a really bad car crash — being crashed on and stamped on,” he told File on Four. “If you let a few people in, they’ll text their friends, and they’ll text their friends. “And the bouncers started being greedy, and it got out of hand. And people wanted to come in anyway, even if they didn’t have a ticket.” The BBC also spoke to someone who got into a show at Brixton Academy with a fake ticket the week before the crush. Andre, the man, claimed he bought fake tickets for DJ Fred Again in a deal with a security guard that night. “It felt really organised, and we weren’t the only ones who got in that way,” he said. The BBC reported that the Brixton guards’ employer, AP Security, had declined to comment. There is no evidence that victim Gaby Hutchinson, who was on duty for the gig, took bribes or let people in without tickets. The venue’s licence was suspended for three months by Lambeth council yesterday, following an application by the Met, while investigations into the crush continue. The owners, Academy Music Group, had already stated that they would be closed for three months. When contacted, AP Security declined to comment.
