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Above: Hampstead-based trainee police officer PC Claire
Moffett gets her award from Sir Ian Blair, and below,
PC Ian Miller
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Rookie cops win Met's highest award
ROOKIE Camden coppers who were first on the scene
of the July 7 bombs were among officers who received the Metropolitan
Police’s highest awards.
They were among an unprecedented total of 34 Camden officers
who were given accolades by Metropolitan Police Commissioner
Sir Ian Blair for dealing with the horrific scenes that greeted
them on the morning of the terror attacks.
Holborn-based PC Ashley Walker was the first police officer
at the scene of the Number 30 bus blast in Tavistock Square.
He had been on patrol when the bomb went off. He said: “I
was about 100 metres away from the bus and heard a huge bang.
I saw metal sheets from the bus fly into the air along with
other debris and my first instinct was to run onto the bus to
help the people hurt and injured. I carried people off to safety
and gave first aid to several people.”
Sgt. Graham Cross, who had been a police officer for 12 years
and had served as a soldier in the first Gulf War, joined PC
Walker at Tavistock Square moments after the bomb had exploded.
He said: “It seems that we were in the wrong place at the
right time. I was worried there would be another bomber on the
bus but we just had to get there and help people off. Any Police
Officer would have done the same in those harrowing circumstances.”
PCs Ian Miller and James Cope were on the Piccadilly line platform
at King’s Cross Station within minutes of the blast, which
claimed half of the 52 victims of the terror attack.
They braved the dark and smokey tunnel, risking injury from
a possible second explosion, electrocution or the tunnel’s
collapse, to rescue and give first aid to casualties.
On Wednesday they were awarded Commissioner’s Commendations
for their “supreme courage, outstanding professionalism,
dedication to duty and compassion” at the police training
headquarters in Hendon.
Hampstead-based trainee police officers PC Claire Moffett and
PC Phillipa Mason, who had only been in the job for five weeks,
were two of the first officers to reach King’s Cross.
PC Moffett said: “We heard reports of smoke at King’s
Cross so we rushed down there. We didn’t know what to expect
but we knew it was bad.”
They discovered a scene of carnage.
PC Mason, who arrived at Russell Square, said she could not
believe the scene that greeted her.
She said: “The lights were out and there was smoke every
where.
“We found injured people on the platform and the train
had been obliterated.”
Other officers honoured included Inspector David Nasmyth-Miller,
who helped run the King’s Cross operation, and PCs Vivek
Shrotri, Neil Cook, Katharine Brine, Anna Bearman, Jonathan
Herd, Richard Harwin, Stephanie Barron and Simon Ramasawmy and
Sergeant David Timms, who all entered the tunnel to give first
aid.
Trainee PCs Mark Patchett, Peter Singer, Phillippa Mason, Karen
Miles-Holdaway Helen Skeggs, Claire Moffet and their instructors
Paul Brown, Lee Gibbs, Ryan Marlborough, Louise Berry and Neil
Drinkwater were all similarly honoured.
Commissioner’s Commendations are awarded when officers
display “a high degree of bravery above that which would
normally be expected” or where they “perform their
duty in an outstanding manner far above that which would normally
be expected for their rank, role, responsibility training and/or
experience”.
Speaking at the ceremony, Commissioner Sir Ian Blair said: “This
is the largest number of people that have ever been commended
in one day in the history of the Met.” |
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