Members of the public respond: an example of bad meeting good

Members of the public respond: an example of bad meeting good

¶64. In this section of the report, I wish to acknowledge and record the actions of members of the public who responded in an admirable way to the unfolding events.

¶65. First, it is important to recognise that many of the parents and other relatives of the girls attending the class had started to arrive. Without singling any of them out, I should start by acknowledging the mutual support they tried to give each other in the desperately confusing and awful situation they faced. Some of this is caught on the emergency responders’ body worn footage which is too distressing to have made public in the hearings. It was vividly described in the Inquiry’s impact evidence.

¶66. The girls and Ms Lucas who had escaped out of the Hart Space headed towards the rear (Hart Street end) of the car park. Some of the girls got into the white BMW owned by Q-M, the mother of Child Q.¹³⁹¹³⁹ MERP001140 – Disclosed but not published due to sensitive content. Alice was able to reach this same car but collapsed on the ground on the far (Hart Street) side of it. Q-M, with other family members, was seated in the vehicle. As well as Child Q getting into her mother’s car, a number of other girls were able to take shelter in the car too, including Child C3 and Child C6. Q-M was able to drive out of the car park and into Hart Street, where she parked so that first aid could be given to the injured children.

¶67. I have described Child C1 collapsing by the door to the Hart Space, having been pulled back in and further attacked by AR. Mr James Dixon, who was working in Masters Garage, had heard screams and went towards the Hart Space.¹⁴⁰¹⁴⁰ MERP000686 – Disclosed but not published due to sensitive content. As he was walking towards Hart Space, he saw Child C1 and went to pick her up, despite the potential risks to himself. He can be seen on the CCTV picking up Child C1 at 11:49:29. He carried her to Hart Street and placed her on the floor to the left of the car park entrance and applied pressure to her wounds. In my view he is to be congratulated on the prompt and effective assistance he provided. Child C1’s parents described him as “a wonderful man who took her to safety”.¹⁴¹¹⁴¹ T/S: 2/24/23.

¶68. I have mentioned that Mr Verite and Mr Tyjon were flagged down on Hart Street by Leanne Lucas.¹⁴²¹⁴² MERP001434 – Disclosed but not published due to sensitive content.,¹⁴³¹⁴³ MERP001442 – Disclosed but not published due to sensitive content. They were work colleagues in their work vehicle. They stopped to help and ran towards the Hart Space. At 11:50, Mr Verite picked up Alice and carried her to the ground in the driveway of 34 Hart Street, close to where Child C1 had been carried by Mr Dixon.

¶69. The movement of Q-M’s BMW and the location to which Child C1 and Alice were carried by Mr Dixon and Mr Verite is shown in Figure 7 below.

¶Figure 7: Treatment locations¹⁴⁴¹⁴⁴ MERP007547.

¶Aerial image showing the route of the white BMW.

¶70. Mr Tyjon remained with Alice and provided such care as he was able, including administering first aid, until the paramedics arrived.

¶71. Mr Verite, having left his T-shirt as a makeshift bandage with Mr Tyjon to help treat Alice, went back into the car park and then entered the Hart Space. At 11:52 he started climbing the stairs. However, he saw AR pacing on the landing at the top of the stairs and carrying a large knife. Mr Verite went back downstairs and left the building several seconds after he had entered it, at 11:53. He smashed the glass pane to the door, to stop AR from locking himself in.

¶72. When the police arrived (as I shall detail further below), Mr Verite supplied Police Sergeant (PS) Gregory Gillespie with information as to what he would face inside. When the police went inside to detain AR, Mr Verite followed them in, having armed himself with a hammer. He was asked by the police to carry Bebe out of the building in order to see if any help could be provided to her. He carried Bebe to Hart Street where she was placed in an ambulance and later moved to a guarded cordon.

¶73. Mr Stephen Mitton, who lived on Hart Street, saw some of the girls running away.¹⁴⁵¹⁴⁵ MERP001041 – Disclosed but not published due to sensitive content. He intervened and ushered them inside his house where they were cared for by his wife, Mrs Pamela Mitton.¹⁴⁶¹⁴⁶ MERP000792 – Disclosed but not published due to sensitive content. Mr Mitton also assisted at the scene. An ambulance was called. Mr and Mrs Mitton behaved in a praiseworthy public-spirited fashion, acknowledged by the parents of the girls who were able to shelter in their home. Mr Manju John, an off-duty nurse, who lived on Hart Street, went to the home of the Mittons and was able to provide first aid and other assistance.¹⁴⁷¹⁴⁷ MERP001033 – Disclosed but not published due to sensitive content.

¶74. Mr Andrew Batchelor was another resident on Hart Street.¹⁴⁸¹⁴⁸ MERP001424 – Disclosed but not published due to sensitive content. He telephoned the police at 11:49. He provided towels to those caring for the injured, assisted in the care of Alice, he liaised with the emergency services, and he helped manage the traffic, an important form of assistance given the need to try to keep Hart Street accessible to the emergency services.

¶75. Ms Julie Woof was driving past 34 Hart Street with her two children when she saw a child lying on the pavement, Child C2, who was being cared for by Mr Martin Fessey.¹⁴⁹¹⁴⁹ MERP000386 – Disclosed but not published due to sensitive content.,¹⁵⁰¹⁵⁰ MERP000678 – Disclosed but not published due to sensitive content. She helped compress Child C2’s injuries until relieved by Police Community Support Officer (PCSO) Barry Calder and paramedics. Mr Fessey nonetheless remained and provided additional assistance.

¶76. PCSO Calder (a retired police medic) triaged some of the children, ensured they were receiving first aid and recorded the details of key witnesses.¹⁵¹¹⁵¹ MERP001072 – Disclosed but not published due to sensitive content.

¶77. Ms Joanne Martlew was driving home with her family.¹⁵²¹⁵² MERP000848 – Disclosed but not published due to sensitive content. She had worked with the Coast Guard and Fire Service and had associated medical skills. She assisted by assessing some of the injuries, providing first aid, and in co-ordinating the medical response. She also assisted the police in collecting clothing in evidence bags. She remained at the scene until all the children were en route to hospital.

¶78. Ms Abigail Butler, an off-duty nurse, was called to the scene by her sister Mrs Jennifer Scholes (who leased the Hart Space).¹⁵³¹⁵³ MERP001347 – Disclosed but not published due to sensitive content. Ms Butler assisted one of the injured children and then, using an ambulance kit, provided care for Mr Hayes inside the Calculus office until the North West Fire Service carried him from the Calculus office to the triage area on Hart Street, where she administered oxygen and pain relief until his transfer to hospital. She then offered support to other attending emergency staff.

¶79. Mr Mikhail Lawler, a senior charge nurse at Southport and Formby General Hospital, was driving in the area while off duty and went to assist once he saw the emergency vehicles.¹⁵⁴¹⁵⁴ MERP000065 – Disclosed but not published due to sensitive content. He provided first aid, critical medical care and general support to a number of the casualties, including in particular to Alice.

¶80. Even senior and experienced members of the emergency services who attended described the dreadful and distressing nature of the scene, with multiple gravely injured children, parents in a state of shock and deep distress, and the realisation that there had been child fatalities.

¶81. In the face of such a scene, DCI Pye aptly described the actions of those I have summarised in this section:

¶“I think this was definitely an example of bad meeting good and there were lots of members of the public, some professionals, some not, who had no duty of care but actually stopped to assist. People may have seen on television how chaotic the scene was outside but there were lots of good people and it is only right that we recognise the work that those people did.”¹⁵⁵¹⁵⁵ T/S: 10/100/13-19.

¶82. All of those referred to in this section, together with others – families, relatives and other members of the public who did what they could at the scene – are, in my view, to be commended for their actions.