Security guards at Brixton Academy regularly took bribes to let people in without tickets, a whistleblower has told. Two people lost their lives at the south London venue in December, in a crush outside a gig by Afro- pop star Asake. A security guard has told File on Four that some members of his team would each allow a couple of hundred extra people into venues in exchange for money. Their employer, AP Security, has declined to comment. There were people taking money. Some staff made £1,000 cash, said guard Rohan, not his real name, who is employed by AP Security. Our company knew what was going on and they knew the people who were doing it,he told the and they did nothing about it. There is no suggestion that Gaby Hutchinson, the security guard who died at the venue, was involved in taking bribes or letting people in without tickets.

Rohan was working on the front doors when the fatal crush happened on 15 December. He told there was not enough security on duty that evening at the O2 Brixton Academy - with only 110 members of the security team there, when there should have been 190. It was like being in a car crash that been really awful - being crashed on and stamped on.Mother of two, Rebecca Ikumelo, 33 - and security guard Gaby Hutchinson, 23 - were both caught up in the crush and later died in hospital. Rohan said he witnessed what happened to both of them. Separately, he reflected on how some guards were letting people in without tickets. When you let a few people in, they would text their friends, and theyll text their friends. And the bouncers started being greedy, and it got out of hand. And people wanted to come in anyway, without a ticket.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-INP