7/7 inquest verdict – live

Lady Justice Heather Hallett delivers her verdicts at the inquest into the 7 July 2005 bombing of the London transport system 9.39am: My colleagues on the video desk have produced this film featuring interviews with the families of Philip Russell, Miriam Hyman and Fiona Stevenson, who were killed in the 7/7 attacks, and David Gardner, who survived. _ 9.30am: Lady Justice Heather Hallett is to deliver her findings today at the inquest into the deaths of 52 people on 7 July 2005, when four Islamist suicide bombers blew themselves up on London’s transport system, in the deadliest terrorist attack in British history barring Lockerbie. Hallett will almost certainly find that the 52 victims were unlawfully killed in the attacks on three tube trains and one bus. But the inquest also showed that London’s emergency services fell short in their response to the bombings. How seriously they failed will be Hallett’s duty to decide. She will also look at what the authorities knew about the bombers that might have prevented the attacks. Hallett is to make recommendations on how to avoid future deaths under her “rule 43″ powers, the only power a coroner has to make such recommendations; this is only allowed if doing so could prevent future deaths. But it is not yet clear how much scope Hallett actually has under these powers. Lawyers for MI5 argued in February that the law permitted only “brief, neutral and factual” verdicts. My colleague Esther Addley, who attended the hearings at the end of last year and the beginning of this one, summarised some of the failings of Transport for London, the Metropolitan police, British Transport police, the Ambulance Service, the Fire Brigade, and City of London police that emerged from the inquest: However unprecedented the events of that day, however complex the task of responding to multiple emergencies on the capital’s overstretched transport network and however powerful the many stories of individual heroism among professionals, again and again the inquest has heard of communication failures, command and control confusion and inadequate provision on the part of the emergency services … Survivors staggering from the Aldgate train told how they shouted at paramedics who were waiting on the platform for instructions while people were dying just a few hundred yards away in the tunnel. Fire crews did not arrive at the platform at Edgware Road until 9.44am, almost an hour after the explosion, where they waited instead of proceeding to the carriage … Ambulances from the two closest stations to the bomb site were not dispatched. The driver of the train, Ray Whitehurst, with none of his communication equipment working, rang repeatedly for help from a fixed-line phone inside the tunnel, but was ignored … Though the Tavistock Square bus blew up in broad daylight in a busy central London street, it took 52 minutes before ambulances were even dispatched. British Transport police officers who witnessed the explosion and ran to their nearby headquarters to raise help were instead prevented from leaving the HQ after being told it was in “lockdown”. Hallett may propose changes to emergency response procedures, and could criticise MI5, which had two of the bombers – Mohammed Siddique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer – under surveillance but failed to stop the attacks. A photograph that MI5 sent to US secret services of Siddique Khan and Tanweer was cropped so badly as to render Tanweer unrecognisable and cut out Khan altogether, it emerged during the inquest. Among 32 recommendations they would like to see, victims’ families want Hallett to recommend tighter restrictions on the sale of hydrogen peroxide, one of the main ingredients in the bombs. The July 7 hearings were actually 52 separate inquests, involving five months of testimony, starting last October, hearing from more than 500 witnesses either in person or through statements, and dealing with 1,173 pieces of evidence. The evidence provided a detailed picture of the lives of those killed, injured or affected by the bombings, and their relatives. The level of serious injuries came as a shock to many following the hearings. Esther has written a very interesting piece today explaining many of the things we learned from the inquest, from details about the bombers’ personalities to how far afield many of the victims came from and how heroically many responded. Also in today’s Guardian, Esther speaks to many of the victims’ families , Alexandra Topping looks at the relatives’ calls for the emergency services to be overhauled , Richard Norton-Taylor examines the role of MI5 , Shiv Malik visits Beeston, the area of Leeds where Khan came from , and Vikram Dodd looks at the government’s counter-terrorism strategy . We also have two interactives, one on the victims’ testimonies , and one on those who died . Hallett will not read out her recommendations, but they will be put up on the inquiry’s website as soon as she has made her concluding comments. The website also contains all the oral evidence from the inquiry. Hallett is an appeal court judge who was designated a coroner for this inquiry. She is one of the most senior female judges in the country. Stephen Bates has written a profile of her here . She has been praised for her work at the inquest and her sympathetic handling of the witnesses. She told Simon Ford, for example, a former fireman who took part in a £100m cocaine ring, but used his bare hands to rip back the metalwork of the Tavistock Square bus and help free survivors: Mr Ford, whatever’s happened in your life since 2005, no one can doubt the courage you displayed on 7 July 2005 … So thank you very much for all that you did that day. Thank you. 7 July London attacks London Paul Owen guardian.co.uk

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