A man who posted photos of a Grenfell Tower fire victim on his Facebook page says he was shocked to be jailed.
Omega Mwaikambo feels he did not deserve his three-month prison term, but said he regretted his actions, calling them morally wrong.
The 43-year-old told BBC Newsnight he was traumatised at the time he took pictures of the loosely covered corpse hours after the blaze on June 14 .
Describing the fire near his home as being like 9/11 but “real in front of my eyes”, 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.”
Grenfell Tower's protective wrap
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, currently the subject of a public inquiry led by Sir Martin Moore-Bick .
Mwaikambo, of Testerton Walk, close to the base of the Grenfell Tower, pleaded guilty to two offences contrary to section 127 of the Communications Act at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
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.
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.”
Keep up to date with the latest news in west London via the free getwestlondon app.
You can even set it to receive push notifications for all the breaking news in your area.
Available to download from the App Store or Google Play for Android now!
