:00:12. > :00:20.HELICOPTER ENGINE ROARS. I knew there was something wrong. Instinct,
:00:20. > :00:28.I think it's called, isn't it? really couldn't believe it. He sets
:00:28. > :00:32.off for work in the morning and you expect them home. One bloke said to
:00:32. > :00:42.me the other day, "It's not the mountain's fault. It's what's in
:00:42. > :00:44.
:00:44. > :00:49.He looked at us and said, "There's no way I can say this other than
:00:49. > :00:59.really sorry, but we have found a body". And the whole place just
:00:59. > :01:01.
:01:01. > :01:05.Rescuers have already attempted one route and are trying a second route
:01:05. > :01:08.to reach the men. It's feared they could be trapped in old workings...
:01:08. > :01:12.There has been an in-rush of water into the mine. We're in the process
:01:12. > :01:14.of removing that water. A year ago, the world waited and
:01:14. > :01:17.prayed for better news from Gleision Colliery, as rescuers
:01:17. > :01:20.attempted to reach four miners who were trapped underground here.
:01:20. > :01:22.Tonight, the families have spoken to us about their experience, their
:01:22. > :01:32.fears, their grief, and the questions that remain to be
:01:32. > :01:37.
:01:37. > :01:44.The trapped men were Garry Jenkins, Philip Hill, Charles Breslin and
:01:44. > :01:54.David Powell. There was every hope they would be rescued from the
:01:54. > :01:55.
:01:55. > :01:59.David Powell's son helped raise to the alarm. He said, "Tell Mammy to
:01:59. > :02:04.come up the Community Centre". The boys ran up the mountain then, to
:02:05. > :02:10.see if they could do anything. David Powell had just turned 50. He
:02:10. > :02:15.was a father of four and a grandfather who loved mining.
:02:15. > :02:21.told him many times to stop, but, no, kept on going. He was happy
:02:21. > :02:25.going to work with bad knees, bad elbows, and smiling coming back. He
:02:25. > :02:30.was just wonderful. He did everything for us and he didn't
:02:30. > :02:37.want anything back. The miners are located approximately 90 metres
:02:37. > :02:40.underground down a 250-metre route into the mine. There are numerous
:02:40. > :02:49.little tunnels, old workings, which all potentially have got air
:02:49. > :02:55.The rescue operation was being co- ordinated from the nearby Rhos
:02:55. > :03:05.Community Centre. The families gathered inside as the press
:03:05. > :03:06.
:03:06. > :03:09.Everybody was just staring at each other. Obviously I wanted him back.
:03:09. > :03:17.In my heart, I knew there was something wrong after seeing the
:03:17. > :03:21.rescue miners with their faces. year-old Garry Jenkins had only
:03:21. > :03:26.worked at Gleision for a few weeks. His partner, Sarah Hanson, rushed
:03:26. > :03:28.to the Community Centre. I can remember pulling up outside the
:03:28. > :03:36.Community Centre and there was police ambulances and things, and
:03:36. > :03:39.it was a shock. At that point, nobody really knew. I didn't really
:03:39. > :03:49.understand how bad it was up there at that point so I was quite
:03:49. > :03:55.
:03:55. > :04:00.positive, thinking, "They will get Cos nobody really knew, cos we were
:04:00. > :04:04.in a little bubble in there. Garry lived with Sarah and her three sons
:04:04. > :04:10.in Lower Cwmtwrch. He was proud to be a miner. He did enjoy it up
:04:10. > :04:18.there. All the banter with the other boys. He'd go off to work, he
:04:18. > :04:22.used to pick them all up, then he'd come home, dirty feet. He never
:04:22. > :04:32.moaned about it or anything. He was just happy to go up there and do
:04:32. > :04:35.
:04:35. > :04:40.Just the evening before Alex Jenkins, Garry's son, was with him
:04:40. > :04:45.at rugby training. Alex heard his dad was trapped when he was in
:04:45. > :04:48.school the next day. In school, that lesson we were learning about
:04:48. > :04:56.mining and how it's a Welsh heritage and how it's killed so
:04:56. > :05:06.many people but how many people's kept alive. I was looking at my
:05:06. > :05:07.
:05:07. > :05:11.phone under the table. I read a text. I went to the office. My
:05:11. > :05:15.mother's there and she took me into one of the rooms and sat me down
:05:15. > :05:19.and told me Dad's been in an accident. Cos I knew mining is a
:05:19. > :05:25.dangerous thing. But it's so safe at the same time, I thought he was
:05:25. > :05:30.going to be all right. 62-year-old Charles Breslin was just two months
:05:30. > :05:33.off his retirement. But he wanted money to finish work on the house
:05:33. > :05:40.he'd been building for his wife, Mavis, and their disabled daughter,
:05:41. > :05:45.Cheryl-Ann. We built this house. It's supposed to be for us to
:05:45. > :05:49.retire in so we could enjoy the rest of our lives. I couldn't
:05:49. > :05:54.believe it. To begin with, I thought, "No, they got it wrong".
:05:54. > :06:04.Her last memory of Charles was of the night before. It was my
:06:04. > :06:04.
:06:04. > :06:09.birthday. He had come back from the club with a bottle of wine. I said,
:06:09. > :06:13.is that my birthday present? He said, I will pay for you and a
:06:13. > :06:18.friend to go for a meal. But news broke the day after my birthday, so
:06:18. > :06:22.we didn't go for that meal. All the way down in the car I was praying,
:06:22. > :06:28.I was saying, "I don't care if he's paralysed, just as long as I can
:06:28. > :06:32.have him home, but no... At first, Charles' brothers, both ex-miners,
:06:33. > :06:40.thought he'd survive. He was experienced and renowned for his
:06:40. > :06:48.strength. Hard work was his name. Much stronger than I am. I will
:06:48. > :06:51.never fit into his shoes. Never ever. He could move a mountain. He
:06:51. > :06:57.would be laying on his back in water, shovelling coal, filling
:06:57. > :07:05.drams doing repairs, in only a few feet of height. He loved it and
:07:05. > :07:10.never moaned he wanted a good life for his family. And he was prepared
:07:10. > :07:13.to work for the money. With growing interest from around the world,
:07:13. > :07:19.back at the Community Centre, all the families could do inside was
:07:19. > :07:25.wait. Sat in that place was horrendous. One of the worst
:07:25. > :07:35.moments of my life. You always live in hope, but deep down I just had a
:07:35. > :07:41.
:07:41. > :07:45.gut feeling that this wouldn't be The water - once they said the
:07:45. > :07:53.amount of water... I had friends there, friends, people belonging to
:07:53. > :07:58.me, working on the rescue. When we saw the pipes, you knew it was hard.
:07:58. > :08:04.They were up against it. The Mines Rescue Service, with specialist
:08:04. > :08:09.skills and equipment, led the search. We arrived at the mine.
:08:09. > :08:14.From the entrance, it looked like a private mine, a small mine level.
:08:14. > :08:23.No signs of any incidents at all. You had to go well into the mine to
:08:23. > :08:26.get to the water. It was just a body of water, black slurry. Apart
:08:26. > :08:32.from the initial rescue, it was clearing out many thousands of
:08:32. > :08:35.litres of water which had flowed into the mine. But of course, with
:08:35. > :08:45.water you don't know how big the body was, so you could have been
:08:45. > :08:47.
:08:47. > :08:52.For Philip Hill's family, the news was the latest in a series of
:08:52. > :08:57.tragedies. His mother and son had died months earlier. That was
:08:57. > :09:05.difficult for Phil, to lose his mum so suddenly, and then his son. To
:09:05. > :09:11.see him from the character he was to looking so empty and broken. It
:09:12. > :09:18.was very difficult. Philip had been a Mines Rescue Volunteer. But he'd
:09:18. > :09:22.left the industry and worked as carer. Phil said he wanted to start
:09:22. > :09:32.over at Gleision. Grandfather said, "Oh, leave mining alone, but he
:09:32. > :09:36.
:09:37. > :09:40.said, "It's what I love, Dad. His CV was recently written. In his
:09:40. > :09:45.words were, "I have given 20 years to the mining industry. It's what I
:09:45. > :09:48.love and I've got another 20 years to give". Gleision was a wet mine,
:09:48. > :09:53.dug deep into the hills above Godrergraig. It needed constant
:09:53. > :09:59.pumping. A handful of miners worked in a warren of tunnels, some in use,
:09:59. > :10:03.some very old. Three miners had managed to escape. One of them, the
:10:03. > :10:09.manager, Malcom Fyfield, was seriously injured. He'd got out
:10:09. > :10:12.through a mineshaft. Rescuers knew the trapped men. At the Community
:10:12. > :10:16.Centre, a team of Police Liaison Officers were shielding the
:10:17. > :10:26.families from the media. We as Family Liaison Officers were trying
:10:27. > :10:29.
:10:29. > :10:34.to protect our families from going outside because everybody was there.
:10:34. > :10:38.There were cameras, Sky News, everybody was there. As the hours
:10:38. > :10:42.went on, you just knew this is going everywhere and getting bigger.
:10:42. > :10:46.To begin with, when we first went in it was very much four isolated,
:10:47. > :10:49.scared families in the four corners of the centre. There was a lot of
:10:49. > :10:56.conversation and tears and panic, but everybody stopped and you could
:10:56. > :11:06.hear a pin drop. Every hour we had an update from head of the fires,
:11:06. > :11:09.mines service and mines rescue when they came in and closed the door.
:11:09. > :11:19.Every creak of the door my son Korie said, cos they were black,
:11:19. > :11:21.
:11:21. > :11:24.helmets, "Daddy's here", but it I remember coming home, came home
:11:24. > :11:28.for a shower, and as I walked through the back door his
:11:28. > :11:37.cigarettes and things were on the table. First I thought, "He's got
:11:37. > :11:40.out and come home". And then you realise, no, he hasn't. Cheryl and
:11:40. > :11:47.I sat up all night watching the TV, hoping every different bulletin,
:11:47. > :11:51.thinking, "Surely by now they've got through?" Did she realise that
:11:51. > :11:56.the mine that was being talked about was the mine where her father
:11:56. > :11:59.worked? Yes, cos his photo was coming up at every interval. At
:11:59. > :12:06.that time we were numb more than anything, just hoping, thinking,
:12:06. > :12:16."The longer it goes on, no bad news could be good news". Everybody from
:12:16. > :12:17.
:12:17. > :12:20.emergency to the ladies helping out. All the families had had a
:12:20. > :12:24.conversation. If the Chile miners could come out after all that,
:12:24. > :12:27.those days turning into months, you know we'll get these boys out.
:12:27. > :12:37.There was so much hope, such a miraculous story, what happened
:12:37. > :12:37.
:12:37. > :12:47.with them. But Gleision was a world away from Chile. Overnight during
:12:47. > :12:48.
:12:48. > :12:53.the search rescue operation... Which is ongoing. A miner has been
:12:53. > :12:59.found. He is deceased. We are not in a position to recover him,
:12:59. > :13:04.therefore do not know the ID of that person. The news had already
:13:04. > :13:11.been broken to families inside the Community Centre. I can still see
:13:11. > :13:15.his face. He took his hat off and said, "Can I have your attention?"
:13:15. > :13:20.He closed the doors and windows and said, "There's no way I can say
:13:20. > :13:25.this other than we're really sorry. We've found a body". The whole
:13:25. > :13:32.place just collapsed. Everybody was in shock. Screams, tears hugs,
:13:32. > :13:42.questions about "who is it?" Do we know which one it is? It was so
:13:42. > :13:45.unreal. Totally unreal. What I couldn't understand, I do now, but
:13:45. > :13:52.why families were informed that one miner had been killed but they
:13:52. > :14:01.didn't name him. I just thought, "Why not wait till they knew who he
:14:01. > :14:04.was so you're not upsetting four families instead of one?" From the
:14:04. > :14:09.outset, police decided the families had to be kept fully informed of
:14:09. > :14:16.any developments. They didn't want them finding out from the community.
:14:16. > :14:19.That task fell to the liaison officers. Four families in the
:14:19. > :14:23.Community Centre, and we don't know how long this is going to be but
:14:23. > :14:30.one of us is going to have to say to our family, "I am really, really
:14:30. > :14:34.sorry but the miner we've brought out is your loved one". Detectives
:14:34. > :14:42.from South Wales Police were brought in right from the beginning.
:14:42. > :14:46.Their job to establish what had gone so wrong. The most poignant
:14:46. > :14:50.moment for me, and difficult moment, was when the body of the first
:14:50. > :14:53.miner was carried out by the Mines Rescue Service. I remember clearly
:14:53. > :15:02.the lights from the miners' helmets coming up the drift, carrying the
:15:02. > :15:12.bodies out of the mine. Everyone who was sat around stood up and
:15:12. > :15:15.
:15:15. > :15:20.took off their hats as a mark of respect. There were tears. A very
:15:20. > :15:29.sad moment. Grown men... Certainly tearful. Back at the Community
:15:29. > :15:39.Centre, the families were told the It was horrendous watching the
:15:39. > :15:41.
:15:41. > :15:45.inspector come in and walk up to that family, it was not a nice time.
:15:45. > :15:51.I can remember her standing in front of me, grabbing my hand and I
:15:51. > :16:01.knew then it was him. Then they took us into a different room to
:16:01. > :16:04.
:16:04. > :16:11.tell us it was him they had found. Garry's son, who lives with his mum,
:16:11. > :16:18.was waiting for news at his grandparents' house. My mind was in
:16:18. > :16:26.a place that the chances are he had passed. When the news came, I cried
:16:26. > :16:36.a bit, I already knew myself. After I knew there was water involved, I
:16:36. > :16:42.
:16:42. > :16:46.knew water and mines don't mix. more caring person, you could meet.
:16:46. > :16:49.He wouldn't go without work. He promised to get me something one
:16:49. > :16:56.Christmas and washed windows because he was out of work, just to
:16:56. > :16:59.pay for a present. He would have worked no matter what. I can't
:16:59. > :17:09.blame him for going down there - it's something that's in our family
:17:09. > :17:13.
:17:13. > :17:16.and always will be. The wait for more news went on and on. It was
:17:16. > :17:19.difficult in that community centre. The other families were devastated,
:17:19. > :17:29.maybe thinking, it's not mine but thinking, right there's still
:17:29. > :17:30.
:17:30. > :17:33.another three in there. Charles Breslin, his wife had said he's as
:17:33. > :17:41.strong as an ox and can swim like a fish and Charles will get these
:17:41. > :17:48.boys out. Unfortunately at 12.15 this afternoon, we located a second
:17:48. > :17:55.miner. This time they had found David Powell. My liaison said that
:17:55. > :18:05.he'd gone. That was the killer. When they said that, my whole life
:18:05. > :18:11.
:18:11. > :18:16.had gone. The love of my life I have lost forever. I don't know how
:18:16. > :18:26.to cope, it's a year and I should be coping but it gets worse. It's
:18:26. > :18:31.
:18:31. > :18:37.getting worse, not better. Then more bad news, the discovery of
:18:37. > :18:45.Phillip Hill. You stop and you think, did they panic, did they
:18:45. > :18:55.know, did they suffer? It becomes painful when you think about what
:18:55. > :18:57.
:18:57. > :19:01.they went through. You tried to think about why has this happened.
:19:01. > :19:04.How did this happen? Try to build up a picture of the four miners
:19:04. > :19:08.going into the mine, to do their day's work, it's that which haunts
:19:08. > :19:13.me. Thinking Philip was probably singing along in his car, into work
:19:13. > :19:15.he went. And what on earth happened then and when you see all the pain
:19:16. > :19:24.and tears left behind for Phillip's children, you can't believe it's
:19:24. > :19:31.happened. 36 hours after the rescue began, the last family heard the
:19:31. > :19:41.news they had feared. I went back outside, another phone call and it
:19:41. > :19:44.
:19:44. > :19:52.was Sian - we've found the last of the miners. Mavis said to me, is he
:19:52. > :19:55.dead? I said, yes, I'm very, so sorry. My world collapsed,
:19:55. > :20:05.everything we'd worked for and had together goneI was numb for days
:20:05. > :20:10.
:20:10. > :20:20.and days. It was horrific because they've lived that death four times.
:20:20. > :20:22.
:20:22. > :20:27.I stayed with them a while after that, but what do you say? I wasn't
:20:27. > :20:30.able to bring the words out for a long time. You do know, I said,
:20:30. > :20:34.that your father's been killed, do you understand what that means, you
:20:34. > :20:44.know what that means? She said, yes, and I said, you won't be seeing him
:20:44. > :20:45.
:20:45. > :20:51.anymore, and she understood that. One by one the bodies were removed
:20:51. > :20:54.from the mine. My wife's friend's son was on the Mines Rescue and
:20:54. > :21:04.carried my brother out - only a young lad from the same village
:21:04. > :21:05.
:21:05. > :21:07.that knew him. How has it affected those people? Seen here for the
:21:07. > :21:11.first time, these pictures show what the Mines Rescue Service faced
:21:11. > :21:18.- tonnes of silt and debris had to be dug out by hand as they made
:21:18. > :21:21.Gleision safe enough for investigators to re-enter. From the
:21:21. > :21:31.outset, we had to consider that an act of negligence may have had been
:21:31. > :21:32.
:21:32. > :21:34.behind this tragedy, that was certainly my focus. There were
:21:34. > :21:38.tonnes of debris and absolute devastation left underground and we
:21:38. > :21:48.relied on our colleagues HSE and MRS to mine their way back through
:21:48. > :21:53.
:21:53. > :21:59.on our behalf. It took almost two weeks of hard and difficult work to
:21:59. > :22:01.clear the tunnel. As a result of what we discovered in those early
:22:01. > :22:08.days, we made decision that a full scale criminal investigation would
:22:08. > :22:18.be required. As the site became a crime scene in the valley below,
:22:18. > :22:22.
:22:22. > :22:25.the families were planning funerals. I asked the undertaker if I could
:22:25. > :22:29.walk the coffin to the grave, because Dad was there when I came
:22:29. > :22:37.into the world, so I thought I wanted to be there when he gets
:22:37. > :22:45.taken out. I didn't know most of the faces but the faces, they knew
:22:45. > :22:55.dad. And dad probably knew all of them. We had the service up in St
:22:55. > :22:55.
:22:55. > :23:00.David's and my son was walking in front - I was proud of him. Then we
:23:00. > :23:03.went to bury him up in Godregraig, opposite the mine. That's all you
:23:03. > :23:13.could see, the rescue team in a line flashing their torches - so
:23:13. > :23:18.
:23:18. > :23:28.proud, absolutely proud. families and the community will
:23:28. > :23:32.always be overshadowed by what happened on at Gleision. One bloke
:23:32. > :23:39.said to me the other day, it's not the mountain's fault - it's what's
:23:40. > :23:45.in the mountain. I passed it once or twice, put the window down and
:23:46. > :23:55.screamed at it. It's there isn't it - you can't move it but it took
:23:56. > :23:59.
:24:00. > :24:04.your best friend. Prince Charles became patron of the memorial fund
:24:04. > :24:12.for the miners' families. More than �1 million has been raised
:24:12. > :24:19.worldwide. But what the families still need are answers to questions
:24:19. > :24:22.about what happened on September 15 last year. Somewhere in your life
:24:22. > :24:27.you are going to try and come to terms with that but the wounds heal
:24:27. > :24:32.but they leave terrible scars. But you need to try to get your head
:24:32. > :24:41.round it. Still so many unanswered questions about how this possibly
:24:41. > :24:43.could have happened and to ruin four lives and four families.
:24:43. > :24:50.generations of Welsh mining communities have learned to live
:24:50. > :24:54.with tragedy. This was the first of the 21 century. The hope must be
:24:54. > :24:56.that Gleision will be the last My objective from the outset was to
:24:56. > :25:06.fully understand events which led to this tragedy and understand
:25:06. > :25:07.
:25:07. > :25:10.factually what caused this to happen. This has been a year-long
:25:10. > :25:13.investigation and I feel that we have achieved it and we've
:25:13. > :25:16.transferred a file to the CPS and they are considering the evidence
:25:16. > :25:23.gathered and we await the CPS decision as to what the future
:25:23. > :25:25.holds. The mine manager Malcolm Fyfield has been arrested and
:25:25. > :25:35.bailed on suspicion of causing manslaughter through gross
:25:35. > :25:37.
:25:37. > :25:40.negligence. The mine remains Closed, its license has been revoked. A
:25:40. > :25:44.year since hope turned despair at Gleision - the families live with
:25:44. > :25:49.the legacy as best they can. Charles Breslin didn't live long
:25:49. > :25:52.enough enjoy his dream home. If we hadn't built this house, he
:25:52. > :26:01.wouldn't have been working but he needed money to finish the driveway
:26:01. > :26:11.and some others and landscaping. The fact I really wanted his house,
:26:11. > :26:12.
:26:13. > :26:22.I do feel guilt. Everything we do, I keep thinking he should be here,
:26:23. > :26:25.
:26:25. > :26:33.if we go on a holiday, he should be with us. My heart is empty, my
:26:33. > :26:43.whole body is empty. I get up in the morning, he's in the house and
:26:43. > :26:47.
:26:47. > :26:52.I talk to him, tell him I love him, tell him to come back. One day I
:26:52. > :27:02.will be with him again - I used to be frightened to die. I'm not
:27:02. > :27:03.
:27:03. > :27:06.anymore because I will be with him again. One day. What happened that
:27:06. > :27:10.day has obviously devastated such a lot of people and support has been
:27:10. > :27:20.lovely, so many kind people, but it would be nicer if none of us had to
:27:20. > :27:27.
:27:27. > :27:29.do this. When I see me, I can also see the things people note of him.
:27:29. > :27:36.Sometimes it's upsetting but it's reassuring to think he's there
:27:37. > :27:42.laughing at me somewhere. So when you're kicking that ball and making
:27:42. > :27:52.a mess of it. Then I also hear him saying when I do something good,
:27:52. > :27:54.
:27:54. > :27:59.saying, well done. Saying, go on boy. Yes. Phillip used to say the
:27:59. > :28:01.best times he had in life were underground. He was probably down