Panorama 2020 E39
Category
🦄
CreativityTranscript
00:00Tonight, we investigate a Covid death that shocked Britain.
00:17Belly Majinga's death sparked protests after reports a transport worker had been spat at
00:23by a customer.
00:25The police say the man couldn't have infected her, but how could they be sure?
00:29I think the police have made a mistake here with their interpretation of that evidence.
00:35We're really no better than tossing a coin.
00:39Belly's employer says it did all it could to protect her, but could it have done more?
00:45She had a very severe form of sarcoidosis that was affecting a part of her body that
00:49was critical to her well-being.
00:51Belly said to me, I have this thing, I have this, I can't even breathe.
00:58As Belly Majinga's family search for the truth, we hear calls for there to be a full
01:03inquest into her death.
01:05I feel that there are sufficient doubts and conflicts around the facts of this case to
01:10justify an investigation.
01:28Just to show you how Victoria, one of the busiest stations in London, empty.
01:41Belly Majinga had never known Victoria station in London this quiet in the 10 years she worked
01:47there.
01:49Lockdown was coming.
01:50People are afraid, very afraid.
01:53Stay home and stay safe than going outside and catch the virus.
01:57But we are here, we have to work.
02:00Belly was worried about coronavirus.
02:02She had serious health problems.
02:06On March 21st, four days after Belly filmed herself at work, she was involved in an incident
02:12with a man on the station concourse near the ticket office.
02:19Belly's friend and colleague Motilani was also on duty that day.
02:23He said the man was agitated and aggressive.
02:53The kid was shocked.
02:57Belly was shaking.
02:59We had to run.
03:02Belly went straight to the reception to find the basin to wash her face.
03:10When Belly went home, she told her husband Lusamba what had happened.
03:16She was sad.
03:19I thought it was because she was tired from work.
03:24She told me, no, darling, someone spat on me.
03:30It affected her a lot.
03:33It affected her a lot.
03:40In the days that followed, Belly began to feel increasingly unwell.
03:44On April 2nd, Lusamba called an ambulance.
03:57The next day, a doctor delivered the diagnosis he feared, COVID.
04:02Lusamba broke the news to his wife.
04:15Belly photographed herself the day she was told,
04:19but wanted to spare her 11-year-old daughter, Ingrid,
04:23so wouldn't show her face during video calls.
04:34She told me, no, I don't want the child to see me as I am.
04:41We spoke.
04:43I gave the phone to the child.
04:45She spoke to the child, and we continued to speak.
04:50It was the last time I heard Belly's voice.
04:58On April 5th, Belly Majenga, who is 47 years old, died.
05:03On April 5th, Belly Majenga, who is 47 years old, died.
05:09You have just lost a person
05:13who was at the centre of what you thought you were doing.
05:21A person who has just left a little girl 11 years old.
05:31Belly's death might have stayed a private tragedy
05:34had it not been for her union,
05:36the Transport Salaried Staffs Association.
05:40Motilani, who has now left Victoria Station
05:43and begun a constructive dismissal case, was a union rep.
05:47I put pressure on my union.
05:50I told my union that I'm not going to have it.
05:53I was actually throwing tantrums.
05:57On May 12th, five weeks after Belly's death,
06:00the union put out a press release.
06:02It said she'd been assaulted by a man
06:04who'd deliberately coughed and spat at her
06:06and said he had the virus.
06:10The police started an investigation
06:12following press inquiries.
06:15British Transport Police have launched an investigation
06:17following the death of a railway ticket officer
06:20who died of coronavirus after being spat at while on duty.
06:24And yesterday, Mr Speaker, this house learned of the tragic death
06:27of Belly Majenga.
06:29The fact that she was abused for doing her job
06:32is utterly appalling.
06:35After an investigation lasting 19 days,
06:38the British Transport Police concluded
06:40there was insufficient evidence to charge anyone with a crime
06:44and that Belly had not died as a result of the incident.
06:49They did the investigation. They didn't find anything.
06:53It was more...
06:57It was really more than that.
07:03What happened at Victoria Station
07:05has been the subject of a police investigation
07:07and an internal inquiry carried out by Belly Majenga's employer,
07:10Govia Thameslink Railway, or GTR.
07:13The facts remain bitterly contested.
07:16So we've eaten back over some of the evidence
07:18to take an expert opinion from doctors, scientists and lawyers.
07:24First, I wanted to understand why it was seven weeks
07:28before the police were alerted.
07:30Investigations usually begin straight after an incident happens.
07:34I think the police would recognise, and all prosecuting authorities,
07:38that you're best attempting to gather evidence,
07:41as long as you've been informed of the potential for there to be criminality,
07:45as close to the events in question as possible.
07:48So where there's delay, there is always the risk
07:51that the evidence isn't as good as it might have been
07:54if you'd acted swiftly.
08:01Motolani claims immediately after the incident,
08:04she told managers she and Belly had been assaulted by a male customer
08:08and she asked for the police to be called.
08:10She says she didn't tell them the man had said,
08:13I have the virus, but says Belly did.
08:16What words did you use to describe the incident?
08:19And I told the manager, he assaulted me.
08:22I was using, he assaulted me.
08:26To me, in my own perspective,
08:28I felt the assault was more even serious.
08:31Why was that?
08:33That was my perspective because, as far as I'm concerned,
08:36the Covid war did not really bother me as much as it bothers Belly.
08:41You know?
08:47GTR says neither Belly nor any of her colleagues present at the time
08:52made a complaint of deliberate coughing or spitting
08:55or asked for the police to be called.
08:57But the company knew something had happened.
09:00We knew there was an incident on the 21st
09:03and at the time it was reported as a coughing incident.
09:06On 8th April, Belly's union wrote to GTR raising the incident,
09:11saying there was evidence a passenger had deliberately coughed in her face.
09:16GTR says the allegation of deliberate coughing
09:19prompted it to begin its own investigation,
09:22but the police were still not called.
09:25At the 8th April, it was reporting as a coughing incident
09:29which wouldn't have made it an assault.
09:31Six weeks after the incident,
09:33we received an allegation that it was a spitting incident
09:37and around that time,
09:38BTP also started their own criminal investigation.
09:45But an allegation of deliberate coughing can be enough
09:48for the police to consider opening an assault investigation.
09:52When the police were eventually called in,
09:55they used ticket office records to trace and interview a 57-year-old man.
10:00The police reviewed CCTV footage,
10:03saying it showed a 15-second interaction
10:06between the man and railway staff.
10:10The footage hasn't been released, so we haven't seen it,
10:13but we've spoken to people who have.
10:17When he was coming at that time,
10:19so, like, he was so quick, he was aggressive to them.
10:24When he arrived, he was so close.
10:27Suddenly, Bailey stepped back.
10:30He came very close to them.
10:32Less than a metre, definitely.
10:35Came very close to them,
10:38and suddenly, Bailey just turned and started to run away.
10:47Patrick and Bart are friends of Bailey's husband, Lusamba.
10:52They were with him when police showed him some of the footage.
10:57The meeting with an officer was recorded.
11:01He goes past them, talks, moves, comes back.
11:05But when he comes back, it's clear that that's when something happened.
11:10So, when this was told, we obviously explained to them
11:14that's when he said that what you saw was the cough.
11:22But if it was just a cough, why had Bailey run away?
11:26The police recognised that something happened.
11:30But because we couldn't see it,
11:35so they could just rely on what the men told them.
11:39That maybe he sneezed or he coughed, but he didn't spit.
11:46But they recognised that something happened.
12:00The problem was the CCTV footage wasn't clear enough.
12:04Victoria is one of London's busiest stations.
12:07There are hundreds of CCTV cameras keeping watch.
12:11Network Rail, which operates them,
12:13says only one captured footage of the incident.
12:18By the time police started investigating,
12:20the footage, which is routinely only stored for around 28 days,
12:24had been wiped.
12:25But officers were told that six minutes, which included the incident,
12:30had been saved at the required time.
12:33The police say that even after they'd had the footage enhanced,
12:36it was still not clear enough to show whether a crime had been committed.
12:41So, what were witnesses saying?
12:43Mottolani gave a statement in May.
12:46She told police the man had said,
12:48you know I have the virus.
12:50Another witness, also a member of station staff,
12:53told the police that the man had said,
12:55you know I have the virus.
12:58Another witness, also a member of station staff,
13:01told the police he hadn't said that.
13:04When the British Transport Police announced
13:06they were closing their investigation,
13:08they said they were confident the man couldn't have infected Belli.
13:34They said he'd had an antibody test four days after the incident
13:38as part of his occupation,
13:40and it was negative, showing he'd never had the illness.
13:46But how could they be so sure?
13:48On the 25th of March, I don't believe there were any
13:52commercially available, reliable tests,
13:55certainly that were reliable enough to be used.
14:00The quality of the tests that we were using in March,
14:04or were available in March,
14:07were really no better than tossing a coin.
14:12A negative result didn't necessarily mean there had been no infection.
14:18A negative test can be unreliable
14:20if it has failed to detect antibodies in the patient,
14:25and that is certainly something that is observed
14:29with a number of test kits,
14:32that they are not able to detect antibodies when they are there.
14:39The NHS didn't begin offering antibody tests to all staff until May.
14:45Back in March, commercially available tests
14:48were only just coming onto the market.
14:51It's difficult understanding diagnostic tests,
14:53and I think the police have made a mistake here
14:55with their interpretation of that evidence.
14:58And it's important that you get professional advice, I think, on these,
15:02to actually understand what it means when you have test results.
15:07The British Transport Police say the test was substantiated by the man's GP.
15:12It did not change the fact there was insufficient evidence
15:15of any criminal offences taking place.
15:22As Belly's case was being closed,
15:25the killing of George Floyd was sparking protests in the US.
15:33I felt so hopeless when I found out about George Floyd.
15:36I just felt like there was nothing I could do.
15:39And then I saw on the news what happened to Belly.
15:43We see people like Belly every day when we're going through Victoria Station,
15:47and she's a black woman.
15:49A normal black woman just doing her job.
15:53Naomi started posting on social media.
16:02Fired up by the reaction, she helped organise a rally in London.
16:06Justice for Belly! Justice for Belly!
16:10It was incredible. Belly's family led the whole march
16:14with a banner, Justice for Belly.
16:17Justice for Belly! Justice for Belly!
16:48Belly's death was now attracting so much attention
16:52that in June, the British Transport Police announced
16:55it had asked the Crown Prosecution Service to review its investigation.
17:05I've also been looking at Belly's time at Victoria Station.
17:09She loved her job, but I've discovered she wasn't always happy at work.
17:15Eight weeks before she died, she'd raised a grievance against GTR,
17:20claiming discrimination and victimisation.
17:24In September 2019, Belly had been suspended from work for six weeks
17:29after leaving ticket office takings on a supervisor's desk
17:33rather than handing them to the cashier.
17:37So Melly Majinga held a very responsible role with cash handling,
17:41and our policies had at that time stated that people should be suspended
17:46if there was an incident.
18:01Where there is a suspension, we try to deal with that,
18:04with the investigation, as soon as possible,
18:06and staff are always suspended on full pay.
18:09That was resolved, and there was no action taken with Belly,
18:12and she returned to work.
18:14But Belly claimed a white colleague who'd made a similar mistake
18:18hadn't faced the same sanction.
18:32Belly died before her grievance could be resolved.
18:40Belly Majinga was the main breadwinner in the family.
18:44She'd also been living with a serious illness called sarcoidosis.
18:50It's what we call an inflammatory condition,
18:52which basically means your immune system goes a bit haywire
18:56and starts attacking different parts of the body.
18:59Belly's sarcoidosis affected her throat and lungs,
19:02making it difficult for her to breathe.
19:05In 2016, she needed treatment in hospital.
19:08She had a very severe form of sarcoidosis
19:11that was affecting a part of her body that was critical to her well-being.
19:15GTR has its own in-house medical team,
19:18and Occupational Health knew about Belly's sarcoidosis.
19:22Belly's medical condition would have been on the record
19:25of our chief medical officers,
19:27because we're one of the few train operating companies
19:30that has an in-house medical team.
19:32At the time, Belly's condition was not classed by the government
19:36as a reason for standing her down.
19:41Sarcoidosis wasn't added to the government list of high-risk conditions
19:45until after Belly had died.
19:48But while Belly was still at work,
19:50could GTR have done more to protect her?
19:53These were unprecedented circumstances.
19:56It's precisely the time when our health care system
20:00It's precisely the time when an employer should, I think,
20:05use that information in order to try and prevent
20:10any further or unnecessary exposure of harm.
20:14It would help them to determine which employees
20:18should not be in front-facing key worker roles, for example,
20:24but be placed out of harm's way
20:27into more secluded roles
20:30where they're not interfacing with the general public.
20:33Five days before the incident on the concourse,
20:36government had urged vulnerable people
20:39to avoid unnecessary social contact.
20:42The government advised that anybody who was pregnant,
20:46who was over the age of 70 and was vulnerable,
20:49should be stood down.
20:51We followed that advice. We went slightly further than that.
20:55GTR says that on the 13th March,
20:58it asked staff to fill in a questionnaire
21:00to identify any health conditions
21:02that might restrict their ability to work in public-facing areas.
21:05It says Belly Majinga only recorded blood pressure.
21:10Belly hadn't mentioned sarcoidosis,
21:13and according to GTR, she'd asked Occupational Health
21:16to keep her condition confidential.
21:19Clearly, around medical issues, people worry about confidentiality.
21:23They don't always necessarily want their line manager to know
21:27if they have a confidential condition.
21:30They're worried about whether it affects their employability.
21:35But Belly's managers did have some information.
21:38GTR, in its own internal investigation published last August,
21:43acknowledged that her managers knew she had some health conditions
21:47that meant she needed regular medical check-ups.
21:52But did they know more than that?
21:55We discovered that GTR shared a different version
21:58of its internal investigation with Belly Majinga's union.
22:01It revealed that her managers knew she'd had surgery on her throat
22:05some years previously,
22:07and that her hospital check-ups were connected to it.
22:11I think it arouses a degree of disquiet in me
22:17because there's such a contrast between those versions.
22:20So you've got one version which says this was known only to
22:23Occupational Health and managers couldn't be expected to know,
22:26then another version which says they knew about the throat surgery
22:30and the need for regular check-ups.
22:34On March 20th, one of Belly's consultants wrote to her GP,
22:39saying she should be regarded as high risk
22:42because of the immunosuppressant drugs she was taking
22:45to treat her sarcoidosis.
22:49She would be vulnerable based on the medication she was on.
22:52She couldn't be more at risk because she basically had
22:55very little defence against a viral infection
22:58because of the medication she needed to keep the sarcoidosis at bay.
23:06On the day of the incident itself,
23:08the government was issuing guidance for people taking immunosuppressants.
23:12They should shield.
23:15GTR says it doesn't maintain up-to-date records
23:18of all medication taken by staff.
23:24But was there a need for Belly to be on the concourse that day?
23:27Passenger numbers were down.
23:30We've seen the staff rosters for March 21st.
23:34Belly had been due to work in the ticket office.
23:38Motolani says she felt safer there.
23:41We were dealing with people from all around the world
23:46who were talking directly to us.
23:48Belly said to me,
23:50that, Motolani, I have this thing, I have this.
23:53I can't even breathe.
23:54Even in wintertime, I'm scared of catching flu.
23:57Then imagine this thing happening.
24:03GTR says all ticket office staff in Victoria
24:06undertake concourse duties
24:08as part of their normal ticket selling and customer assistance role.
24:15On March 25th, four days after the incident,
24:18one of Belly's consultants, at her request,
24:21called GTR telling the company she shouldn't be at work.
24:25Belly was sent home.
24:28It's very unusual, I think, for a hospital consultant
24:31to ring a line manager
24:34to inform them that a patient should shield.
24:38Questions may arise as to why that had to be done.
24:43We did everything that we could.
24:45As soon as Belly told us that she felt she was vulnerable
24:48or we received advice from a doctor,
24:51we stood down and shielded her immediately.
24:55Belly never went back to work again.
24:59She died 11 days later.
25:02If you know that a particular employee, for example,
25:06is particularly vulnerable to a certain health risk,
25:12the case law establishes that the company would have a duty
25:16to inform the employee of that risk
25:20and to take reasonable measures
25:22to prevent the damage occurring as a result of that risk.
25:28If you have the records, it seems to me that you should,
25:32as an employer, proactively seek to identify the vulnerable.
25:37To put the onus on the employee in these circumstances
25:40is something that would raise a question mark in my mind.
25:45GTR told us, had sarcoidosis been on the government's shielding list
25:49at the time of the incident,
25:51it would have told her to shield,
25:53as it did with nearly 400 other colleagues.
25:57We may never know what really happened
26:00on the concourse of Victoria Station that day
26:03or whether Belly's death was connected to it.
26:09Dating the actual onset of the infection
26:12in terms of the illness that that infection is causing
26:16can be troublesome, particularly on the background
26:19of somebody who may have other conditions
26:21which may be making them feel ill in any case.
26:24I think it's important to bear in mind that it's possible
26:27that she could have been exposed to some other source of infection.
26:31Following its review, the CPS agreed with the police
26:34that in the absence of any persuasive medical or forensic evidence,
26:38together with inconclusive CCTV footage
26:41and inconsistent witness accounts,
26:43no criminal charges could be considered.
26:49But there remain important questions
26:51about the circumstances of Belly Majinga's death
26:54and how it was investigated.
26:56There's never been an inquest into her death.
26:59The barristers we've spoken to believe one might help her family
27:03in their search for the truth.
27:07I feel that there are sufficient doubts and conflicts
27:11around the facts of this case to justify an investigation.
27:16It may be that the outcome of the inquest
27:18won't give them the result that they seek,
27:21but the important thing is that they have the opportunity
27:25to go through the process and be able to put questions
27:30and, to some measure, get answers to some of their concerns.
27:37Maybe somebody, you know, that's, you know...
27:40She's a wretch, she's a...
27:42She's a foundation to happiness, reinforcement to, you know, sunshine.
27:49And, you know, she's...
27:53I don't think I'll ever forget Belly.
27:57I don't think I'll ever forget Belly.
28:03She's going to rest. Her father is going to rest.
28:06She's going to rest. Her father is going to rest.
28:14It's...
28:17It's really bad.