06/11/2017 Inside Out Yorkshire and Lincolnshire

Good evening. This week, is

Yorkshire couple tell us how it took

more than an hour for proper

treatment to reach some of the most

seriously wounded after the

Manchester Arena attack. I joined

forces with local trades meant to

help a disabled couple who live just

a stone's throw from here.

Hello, I'm Keeley Donovan. This week

we are the Humber bridge. Coming

up... Why were ambulance and fire

crew held back from helping some of

the most seriously injured in the

four way at the Manchester Arena

after the bomb attack in May.

I just

kept shouting, we need paramedics

now.

Also tonight... The kindness of

strangers, as I asked local trades

people to help the disabled couple

left in the lurch by the builder.

It's looking brilliant!

Later in the

programme... The Lincolnshire, and

who preyed on bereaved family.

He

seemed so convincing, you wonder how

on earth you were taken in.

In May,

a suicide bomber killed 22 people at

the Manchester Arena. Five of them

from Yorkshire and hundreds were

injured. Inside Out has learnt that

some of the most seriously wounded

had to wait for more than an hour

before they received expert medical

treatment. Colin Paterson also

investigates why fire crews were

held back for more than two hours.

On May the 22nd, Salman Abedi made

his way to the Manchester Arena. He

waited in the four way for the

Ariana Grande concert to finish. As

fans started streaming out, he

detonated a suicide device.

There

was rubble and dust in the air,

smoke everywhere. And then it...

Then there was a screaming, wasn't

the?

There was just too much for

three paramedics to deal with. There

were homeless people helping,

members of the public helping. I'm a

paid public servant and I wanted to

help, I just wasn't allowed to help.

That night, the emergency services

treated hundreds of people, many

with life changing injuries. But

what we have learned is that some of

the most seriously wounded had to

wait for more than an hour before

receiving any kind of expert medical

treatment. Tonight on Inside Out, we

ask, why did that delay happened?

What effect did it have on the

injured and the dying? 12 months

before the bomb, a training exercise

was staged at the Trafford centre on

the outskirts of Manchester.

Authorities were pleased with how it

had gone.

We are delighted. The aim

of the exercise was to stress test

all of the organisations that would

respond to a terror attack.

But what

happened on May the 22nd, when a

real terror attack took place?

Salman Abedi triggered his bomb at

10:31pm. On the night, I was here,

right in the centre of Manchester.

And in the aftermath, I was

interviewing people on Radio five

Live, trying to piece together what

had happened.

Everybody just out of

running as hard as we could.

The

whole building shock. There were

bodies everywhere.

How long were you

lying there for?

Well, probably and

our.

So, on the night, people were

telling me that some of the injured

were waiting an hour for treatment.

Shortly after 11pm, that's half an

hour after the bomb went off, those

who had been in the foyer, injured,

but were able to walk, were

evacuated to hear. This is Victoria

station. Ambulance crews from across

England treated the injured who had

been able to escape the scene. But

for those in the Fourier, expert

help was still very limited. Before

the police cordon was made secure,

only one North West Ambulance

Service paramedic made it into the

foyer. Over the next hour, she was

joined by two more paramedics. The

eyewitnesses we have spoken to say

that more medical help was

desperately needed. Kim and Phil

Dick from Bradford were in the

Fourier to collect their daughter

and granddaughter. Seconds after the

explosion, a victim with serious

injuries collapsed in front of him.

She could hardly walk. She was

stumbling, bleeding from her arm and

her mouth and her leg. And all of

her hair was burned. I does the

latter, because she was going to

fall. We heard all of this screaming

-- I just grabbed her. People were

screaming and running out. We got

the bandages out and we were keeping

them and talking to them.

How long

was this?

Just over an hour. I just

kept saying, you are being really

brave. We could hear the ambulances

all the time. I must have sounded

like a parrot, I did went on and on

and on.

As time passed, concern grew

about the lack of paramedics in the

Fourier.

The normal police and the

armed police came in. I kept

chanting, we need paramedics, we

need paramedics now. They said, we

adjust making sure there are no more

bombs.

An hour after the explosion,

the wounded in the foyer was still

receiving Basic first aid rather

than expert paramedic help.

The

longer it went on, the more silent

it became. It was really eerie.

People who I had seen a little

earlier who were severely injured

when our bed. They made a decision

at some point, about an hour and ten

minutes after the explosion, I

think, that the medical staff

weren't coming up to the foyer. But

we were going to evacuate all of the

casualties.

Security fears may

explain why only three paramedics

could enter the so-called hot zone,

where the bomb had gone off. But

it's harder to understand the delay

in the arrival of Fire and Rescue

staff. Commanders on the night held

Fire and Rescue staff back at the

stations until 12:18am. Fully one

hour and 47 minutes after the blast.

The Fire Service made a decision to

go to a rendezvous point, which is

normal practice as the Ambulance

Service. The Ambulance Service were

called forward. At this stage, I'm

unsure as to why the Fire Service

were delayed so long.

Greater

Manchester Fire and Rescue Service

has a technical response unit. These

are people trained specifically to

deal with terrorist situations. That

unit took part in the Trafford

centre exercise last year. But those

in charge on May the 22nd decided

not to deploy the unit. Save the UK

Fire Service is the major online

platform for firefighters in the UK.

And on the night of the Manchester

bomb, those who were on duty used

this page as the events were

unfolding to vent their frustrations

that they weren't being sent to the

arena.

I've been a firefighter in

Manchester for nearly ten years, and

I've never, ever felt so much guilt

in all my life. We were only half a

mile away from helping. Half a mile

away from potentially saving lives.

And that will always stick with me

forever.

A paramedic lady came to

us, pleading with us to help,

because they needed it.

One

firefighter who was on duty that

night has come forward to the ask

how it felt.

We heard the main

ambulance command and control guy

saying to his staff, basically this

is what's gone on. I can't guarantee

your safety. If you don't want to

go, you don't have too. At this

stage, I'm asking for volunteers.

Add to a man and woman they put

their hands up and did they have so

much paid to do. The paramedics, I

won't say they were having a go at

us, they were asking why we were not

there. We were helpless. As

uniformed service, you do what you

are told to do. I don't want the

public to think that we didn't want

to go all we were scared to go. We

were held back by the senior

management. The firemen wanted to go

and do what the paramedics were

doing. We can fetch, Carey,

administer basic first aid. There

were homeless people helping,

members of the public helping. I'm a

paid public servant and I wanted to

help, I just wasn't allowed to help.

After a terror attack in Mumbai in

2008, the UK Government said it

wanted Fire and Rescue staff to be

able to assist the Ambulance Service

with casualties if a similar attack

should happen here. But since then,

no agreement has been reached with

the Fire Brigades Union.

It's a

truly terrible situation. It's an

impasse that we are torn, do we stop

our people doing it? Do we tell them

not to volunteer? The standard

firefighter, if you like, has had no

training whatsoever, no awareness

training, let alone procedural

training. It's quite scandalous.

The

Fire Brigades Union wants its

members who attend terror attacks to

know the compensation for their

families will be automatic. At the

moment, they would have to prove

that there are employers were

negligent.

I'm absolutely confident

that the public would expect that

whether it is a firefighter or a

police officer or an ambulance

worker who got killed under those

circumstances that there would be an

automatic, reasonable pay element

for those family members that are

left behind.

We wrote to every Fire

Service in the whole of the UK

towards them if the firefighters

wearing short to attend terrorist

incidents -- to ask them if the

firefighters were in short. Of the

49 Fire And Rescue Services across

the UK, 27 reply to us. 19 refused

to answer the question on the

grounds of national security. One

Fire Service, Nottinghamshire, told

us the ordinary firefighters are not

covered to go into a terrorist

incident. Greater Manchester did not

reply, but have now told the BBC

that its firefighters are covered

for terrorist related deployment.

Those trapped in the foyer that

might remain very grateful that so

many people were willing to put

their own lives at risk to help save

the lives of others. But six months

on, they remain concerned that

emergency medical help was so slow

to arrive.

They want to minimise the

risk to as many people as possible,

I perfectly understand that. But

they deployed tens if not hundreds

of police officers into that foyer

and into the arena. And if some of

those had been medically trained,

you can't say for certain, but some

people's injuries could have been

dealt with quicker, and perhaps,

just perhaps, some lives could have

been saved.

But one eyewitness

believes that, under the

circumstances, the authorities did

the absolute best they could.

You'd

like everybody to get help

straightaway, every single medic,

every doctor that was in Manchester

should have been there and they

would have liked to have been there

and everybody would have been in the

helping everybody and nobody would

have died and that would be it, but

it couldn't happen.

The hairs are

standing up on the back of my

neck,

because it's embarrassing that we

weren't allowed to go. There were

ambulances from East Midlands and

police from North Wales at the

incident, and we were stood by.

Why

was it that the Ambulance Service

were able to commit crews and felt

confident enough to commit crews but

the Fire Service wasn't?

The mayor

of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham,

has now set up an independent review

and Lord Coe is late learn lessons

from the events in May. It's due

report next year.

There was a

feeling at the time that the wrong

call was made in those moments. Now,

it seems to me that there is some

substance to that. And it was one of

the reasons why the independent

review was set up. But it's not

about feelings, is it? That's the

point. It's about, what is the

evidence?

Those in charge of the

emergency services that might have a

truly terrible decision to make.

Should they deployed as quickly as

possible, trying to save lives? But

while there was still a threat of a

second explosion. Or should they

wait until the area had been

declared safe, therefore delaying

treatment to victims of the bomb as

a result's North West Ambulance

Service told us they were proud of

their response to the Manchester

Arena attack. They said that within

an hour, all critical patients had

been moved and were being treated by

50 paramedics. Greater Manchester

Fire and Rescue say that they have

conducted their own internal debrief

into the organisation's response to

the Manchester Arena attack and are

fully cooperating with the review.

Greater Manchester Police told us

that they contacted the North West

Ambulance Service within three

minutes of the incident being

declared they followed the incident

plan. None of these organisations

wanted to appear in this film whilst

the review is ongoing. We can tell

you that the girl that the couple

helped did survive.

The crying was

really loud. As the hour went on, it

went down and down and there was no

crying. It was just... I was

shouting, we need, I need a

paramedic. I was just getting very

desperate, you know, wanting,

needing them.

And if you've got a story you would

like to tell us about, you can

contact us on Facebook or Twitter.

Coming up on the programme...

Investigating the conman who

pretended to help families who have

lost loved ones.

Now, you might remember a few weeks

ago I told you about a disabled

couple who live here on the south

bank of the Humber. They had been

scandalously let down by the

builder, who had left them with a

half finished extension. Well, we

didn't just want to walk away. We

decided to help them to get the work

finished. Here is what happened.

This is the home of the Harrisons in

Northland venture. As wheelchair

users, they found the space cramped

and there was no downstairs toilet,

they decided to have an extension

built.

When you take up the third of

the room with a lift, two fairly

large wheelchairs, and you have to

park them up, then it becomes very,

very tight indeed.

They employed

Scunthorpe builder Michael there to

do the work. What happened was a

disaster. Five months into a

six-week job, with lots of the work

still unfinished, Dare walked out on

them, having been paid in full. The

roof was badly constructive, there

were no internal walls and no

electricity. It had cost them their

life savings. Then they discovered

that he hadn't put the foundations

in properly, so they had to borrow a

further £9,000 to put it right. The

experience has left them devastated.

A mess. You're in a wheelchair

you can't explain all the problems.

And a lot of them are very personal.

And he's done that. And he's

humiliated us. And I will never

forgive him for that.

Luckily, the

kind neighbour, Wayne, help out with

a lot of the work that Michael Dare

handgun. But Dawn and Cheryl had no

money left to finish of the house

and make it comfortable. So we

decided to hit the phones. Hello,

it's Keeley Donovan... I was

wondering if you could do me a

favour? I've got a lovely couple who

need help with a house. And the good

people of Lincolnshire didn't

hesitate to offer their help. Thank

you, bye-bye. Julie Smith owns a

curtain business include Forbes. She

has offered to make curtains for the

Harrisons entire extension.

I don't

think it hurts anybody to offer a

helping hand. If I was in that

situation, I hope somebody would

help me out.

I feel honoured to be

doing it, it's a privilege. It's

nice to feel that you are helping

somebody out, especially when

somebody else has to down so badly.

What they needed most was flooring

to cover the length of the extended

room and make it easier for them to

get around. Chris Trott from

Birmingham came up trumps.

We

shouldn't have to do it really.

People should be doing their own job

and doing it right. All we have had

to do is real of all the flooring,

make it parallel to this one. Then

we are going to put some good

quality liner down so that it

doesn't affect the wheels on the

chairs, as such.

The guys worked

their socks off. Within a couple of

hours, the floor is down on the work

is done.

Mate, it's looking

absolutely... It looks huge!

Brilliant.

Julie Smith is back to

put up the curtains she has made for

the couple.

Oh, they are lovely!

It's something you would choose

yourself, Cheryl.

Is the last

finishing touch, then the room will

be complete. I've not seen them for

a few weeks. I have come back to the

house to see what will -- is

happening. You have lived in this

mess for nearly two years now,

haven't you?

It feels like ten!

What

has happened since then was

There

have been people here, people we

didn't know, just volunteering their

help. And it's been absolutely

awesome.

Are you going to show me

it?! You lead the way!

Come on,

then!

Oh! It looks like a different

house! I'm speechless! It is like a

show home in here! Oh, isn't it?! It

looks amazing. The floor is

fantastic. Absolutely brilliant. And

the curtains are just beautiful. So

beautiful. Vogel it looks like a

home.

Yes, it does, it really does.

It must have felt like you were

never going to get this stage.

It

took us years to save up and sort

out the flooring, never mind

everything else.

It has changed your

hasn't it's?

everything else.

It has changed your

hasn't

Thank you isn't enough.

The

goodness that there is out there...

These people just came forward and

said, can I help?

It will make such

a difference to us. We live in a

home now, not a building site.

When people lose a member of the

family abroad, they often speak of

feeling helpless. Families struggle

to get the answers they need. For

some, Simon Doull of seemed like the

saviour, a man with apparent

military credentials who could

investigate the price. But it turned

out to be a pack of as Simon

investigates. -- a pack of lies. The

Foreign Office in London, a protest

by families asking for help over the

death of the relatives abroad.

What

we want? Justice!

Among them, Simon

Durlow, who for months masqueraded

as an expert investigator, calling

himself by a different name. He is

now imprisoned for a £100,000 con

committed against some of the most

honourable people you could imagine.

He was appearing at the most

committee looked as if he was

fighting for us.

He seemed to be

very convincing. I mean, she was.

Coming away from it, you wonder how

on earth you were taken in.

In terms

of the personal impact on the

family, it's just the worst kind of

fraud ever. He was only there for

one person, and that's himself.

I've come to Sutton in Ashfield in

Nottinghamshire. Ray Martin and his

wife, Pat, were devastated when

their daughter, Claire, died in

Italy five years ago from stab wound

to the throat.

We've never believed,

from day one, that our daughter took

her own life.

The Martins believe

that Claire was murdered. But the

Italian authorities ruled it was

suicide. Within months of Claire's

death, Simon Durlow had contacted

the Martins to say that he could

help.

He said, with his team getting

into it and asking questions, he

could get to the truth. Mentioning

that he had got contacts within

Interpol, different contacts abroad.

He seemed to know somebody

everywhere. That's my father's

medals. My father was an Amman.

Reyes from a proud military family

-- my father was an air man. Durlow

also claimed to be ex-armed

services.

I believed he fought for

our country and was injured.

He

invited the Martins down to see him,

he was friendly and not pushy. He

began to say what he could give them

and dangled the carrot of what he

could find out and what his teams

could do, and started to introduce,

but for me to do that, it will cost

£16,000, £65,000, whatever figure it

was that he said that his services

would cost.

In the end, the Martins

had a lucky escape. They simply

didn't have the cash to pay Durlow's

fees.

If I'd have had the money all

we could have remortgaged the house,

yes, I could have lost quite a bit.

To go on Paul Okon on somebody that

has lost somebody -- to go and pull

a con. To give them full scope when

there is no help at the end of the

line, how low can you go? -- to give

them false hope.

Durlow said he had

spent 15 years with the REF, that he

had been a pilot and risen to the

rank of Group Captain. But we

checked with the Ministry of

Defence, and it says it doesn't have

any military credentials whatsoever.

And his company was simply a website

he ran from his home in Gloucester.

But it was slick enough to persuade

some people to hand over the money.

We knew that he would give a free

assessment of the case to see if he

could help. And we felt that it was

worth a try. Because, by then, with

three years after Andrew died...

Julie's son Andrew Watt was 31 when

he died in September 20 ten. He was

found in a country lane near to

where he was living in France. With

injuries on his body. Wrench police

initially said he had died from

natural causes. Months later, they

ruled it was too aside.

The French

had said it wasn't suspicious. So,

you know, there was nothing to be

done. And we started the campaign.

And just to knock on any door for

help.

They have spoken to the

managers and advised them not to

come out and see the B they are not

allowed to.

The man they knew as

Simon di Grassi accompanied them on

many of the protests. This one was

outside the French Embassy in

London. They gave him £18,000,

thinking they were paying for his

investigation services through his

accountant, Paul Durlow, not knowing

that was his real middle name and

surname. It wasn't the only

fictitious character he dreams up

along the way.

He told us he had a compact in

France who will is almost his

counterpart, called Louis, based in

Paris, who would help him with the

language and the law and everything.

We were drawn in.

Julie now lives

near Penrith in Cumbria. For her

money, all she got was an interim

report full of fabricated claims

about her son's death. Beginning to

suspect all was not as it seemed to

be, Julie and her husband Les

insisted they accompanied by Michael

on his next trip to France.

He said

it would be dangerous. And he said

that if there was a problem, then we

may have to escape through Germany.

We were still determined to go, and

we did, we very quickly unravel.

Louis was meant to meet us in Paris,

and he didn't turn up. But he was

shouting down the phone at Louis,

swearing at Louis. And Les and I

does looked at each other and we

both knew that we'd been conned.

--

just looked at each other. The

Shepherds went to Durham Police for

help.

It became clear that he had

been in touch with the number of

families across the UK, and these

families that he had been contacting

were clearly very desperate.

Last

interview with the French

authorities...

He didn't have

operatives across the country or the

old boy's network that he claimed to

have. He was going under a different

name and he had a previous

conviction for fraud and had been to

prison for fraud.

More than a decade

ago, Durlow posed as an insurance

broker in Lincolnshire. But he spent

most of the tens of thousands of

pounds he had taken for policies on

expensive cars. Simon Durlow had set

up a company

specialising in

specialist insurance cover for the

construction industry. Looking into

that, we quickly found that the

whole thing was a sham, really. On

the internet, his website, it

reported blue-chip company,

expensive offices in Singapore and

New York. The reality was it was a

two-bedroom flat above a

hairdressers in Boston.

As Durham

Police built up the case against

Durlow for his latest fraud, he went

on the run. He had left Gloucester,

but they traced him to Jersey in the

Channel Islands. He was found by

officers at the motorhome stopovers

-- stopover site, appropriately

called The Hideaway. Unfortunately

for him, it wasn't a very good

hiding place. He was arrested and

held on remand in Durham. In August,

he pleaded guilty to ten fraud

charges, related to the Shepherds,

the Martins, and a third family.

I

want to look him in the eye, for him

to know what he has done.

Ten days

ago, Simon Durlow had to face his

victims again at Durham Crown Court,

as he was given a ten year sentence

for Acorn the judge said could be

summed up in one word as my cruel.

What did you make of that?

Not

enough, but, yeah, happy, at least

he's not out there trying to dupe

anybody else.

Well, the families now

have justice against Simon Durlow.

But they say they will continue to

fight for justice for their loved

ones who died abroad.

That's all from here at the Humber

bridge, and for this series of

Inside Out. We'll be back in

January. By the now. -- goodbye for

now.