Westminster attack: stabbing of fifth victim likened to 'horror film'

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/sep/14/westminster-attack-stabbing-fifth-victim-likened-to-horror-film-inquest-pc-keith-palmer

Version 0 of 5.

PC Keith Palmer, the fifth victim of the Westminster Bridge attack, was overpowered and stabbed by Khalid Masood in a vicious assault that was likened to something “you see in a horror film”, an inquest has heard.

CCTV footage showed the moments the police officer was stabbed outside the Houses of Parliament. In the footage Masood appeared to bear down on Palmer with a knife in each hand. In an audio recording played to during the hearing, muffled shouts for a medic could be heard and someone noting Palmer’s “pulse is weak”. A man could also be heard urging the officer to stay alive, saying: “Keith, come on son.”

Palmer was one of five people killed by Masood, who carried out a car and knife attack on 22 March last year. Over the course of 82 seconds, he drove his SUV into pedestrians, killing Kurt Cochran, 54, Leslie Rhodes, 75, Aysha Frade, 44, and Andreea Cristea, 31, before fatally stabbing Palmer at the gates to the Palace of Westminster.

A witness statement from Carl Knight, who was sat on the top deck of a bus, was read out to the inquest. He saw Masood get out of the SUV and tell an approaching pedestrian: “Fuck off. You don’t want to mess with me.”

Masood entered the carriage gates to parliament and was confronted by Palmer. The inquest heard Palmer had fallen to the ground and Masood proceeded to stab him. In his witness statement, Knight said it looked like the “knives were bouncing off the officer’s jacket”, and thought Palmer was stabbed around five times.

James West, a charity worker who witnessed the attack from Portcullis House, told the inquest he saw Masood stab Palmer a number of times. West described the stabbing as something “you see in a horror film”. He added he was amazed that Palmer had managed to get up after being “stabbed so many times”. The inquest heard Masood was momentarily distracted by other police officers while he was attacking Palmer, which gave the officer some time to run further into New Palace Yard. Palmer soon collapsed and then received medical attention.

Antonia Kerridge, a parliamentary assistant working in Portcullis House, told the inquest she saw Masood “lumbering” around that day. She saw the attacker following police officers into the New Palace Yard. She saw Palmer fall to the ground, but was unable to say why he fell. Having fallen, Mahood continued towards Palmer, she said. She saw Masood lean towards Palmer “and raised the knife quite high” before stabbing him multiple times. She could not say how many times Palmer was stabbed because she had looked away.

Masood was then shot by plainclothes armed officers. An ambulance arrived for Palmer just before 3pm but efforts to save him stopped at 3.15pm, the inquest heard.

Earlier, a request by Palmer’s family to adjourn the inquest and call a jury was refused.

The inquest heard that Palmer’s sisters Angela Clark and Michelle Palmer, were extremely distressed that no one from the Metropolitan police had let them know there was an issue surrounding the absence of armed officers in place to protect their brother.

Susannah Stevens, representing the sisters, applied to adjourn the inquest into the officer’s death on the fifth day of the hearing.

CCTV footage showed that for “15 minutes there were no authorised firearms officers anywhere near carriage gates”, Stevens told the inquest, adding: “Rather than unarmed colleagues being left utterly helpless while PC Palmer was being stabbed to death.”

Stevens also told the inquest that she had been working pro-bono for the family and asked the coroner to help. “Their application for funding, so they could have lawyers at this inquest, was refused by legal aid agency on Thursday last week,” she said. She added that if evidence was heard today, “we are going to have to carefully review our professional obligation.

“We are simply not in a position to question those witnesses who were present in New Palace Yard.”

Coroner Mark Lucraft QC rejected the application for adjournment and a jury. He assured Palmer’s family that the inquest would be “thorough and detailed”.

The inquest into the attack, which opened on Monday, is expected to last until 17 October.