NONE OF the 52 people who died in the July 7th, 2005, terrorist attacks in London could have been saved even if help from the emergency services had arrived earlier, an inquest into their deaths has ruled.
Confusion in MI5’s system of assessing terrorist suspects and questions over the security services’ record-keeping continued to cause concern almost six years after the attacks, the coroner said.
Four bombs exploded in central London that day. Delivering verdicts of unlawful killing for all the victims, Lady Justice Hallett ruled that no failings from any of the emergency services involved had contributed to the deaths.
“The medical and scientific evidence in relation to all 52 victims leads to only one sad conclusion,” she said.
“I am satisfied on the balance of probabilities that each of them would have died whatever time the emergency services reached and rescued them.”
She criticised MI5, the United Kingdom’s security service, saying she did not accept that the security service had made every possible improvement since 7/7.
During the inquest a senior MI5 officer, referred to as witness G, and James Eadie QC, counsel for the home secretary for England and Wales and MI5, argued the agency had learned from its mistakes.
But in a rule 43 report, which requires MI5 to respond to her concerns, the coroner said: “I feel unable to accept Mr Eadie and witness G’s assurances that all is now well [within the security services].”
She added that “confusion [had] reigned” within the security services about photographs of two of the bombers that were shown to informants almost a year before the atrocity. She called badly cropped images “dreadful”.
“I fully expect the security service to review their procedures to ensure that good quality images are shown and that whatever went wrong on this occasion does not happen again.” She said she found no evidence MI5 knew of, and failed to prevent, the bombings. She called for better communication and sharing of information about terrorist subjects between MI5 and the police.
Speaking to two courtrooms packed with the bereaved families, survivors, members of the emergency services and the media, she thanked the families “for their understanding, their support and their quiet dignity” during the five-month inquest.
She thanked the survivors who gave evidence, many of whom where still traumatised. The victims’ families had called for 32 recommendations they believed would prevent deaths in the event of another major terrorist attack. Some are likely to be disappointed with the coroner’s decision to make only nine recommendations.
Judge Hallet expressed “grave concerns” that, with London a major terrorist target and set to host the Olympics in 2012, there was dangerously low funding for volunteer helicopter medics and the London Air Ambulance.
She rejected calls for a public inquiry, saying the inquest had unearthed material not previously seen.
“I am not aware of our having left any reasonable stone unturned. I would hope that these proceedings would be an end to the investigation of events,” she said.
In a statement, home secretary Theresa May said she hoped the inquest would provide comfort to the families and survivors.
Immediately after the hearing, families represented by the Russell Jones Walker law firm welcomed the verdict of unlawful killing. – (Guardian Service)