Met Detective Constable Mark Denman carried out forensic recovery and examination work, including recovering bodies of victims, at the site of the bomb blast at Edgware Road station, where six of the 52 victims of the London bombings lost their lives
It was the moment, amidst the horrific aftermath of 7/7, that Detective Constable Mark Denman’s professional composure almost disintegrated.
Deep inside the tunnel underneath Edgware Road station, the detective entered the second carriage where, 24 hours earlier, suicide bomber Mohammad Sidique Khan had detonated his rucksack, killing six people.
Mark had been deployed from his New Scotland Yard base to carry out forensic recovery and examination work at one of the sites of the terror attacks, 20 years ago this morning.
Mark, who retired from the Met in 2017, remembers: “At first, seeing all the body parts, I was able to maintain enough detachment not to find it overwhelming to do my job. Human remains don’t have a personality, It’s a body part – you have no association with it.”
But then he saw a young man lying in the second carriage: “He was wearing a light grey suit. He looked too young to be wearing a suit.
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“I later heard he had been on his way to a job interview. That was when the emotion hit me, that was a person, that was someone’s son.”
Mark recovered two of the six victims from the train, and remembers the heartbreaking scenes as each were taken away to their grieving families.
“The young man was laid down on the trolley and the bag was zipped up, to take back to the platform. Everybody stood to attention for about a minute of silence, and nobody said anything.
“It was very spontaneous. Clearly, without any words being spoken, we didn’t plan it but it was instinctive. We knew instinctively what to do, it was what everybody wanted to do. And we did that for every person.
“Everybody was treated the same. Yes, we were doing a job but we were not machines. Everybody felt exactly the same way, emotionally, and everybody was doing everything that we possibly could with reverence and respect to the people that were there.”
Mark, who now works as a private insurance investigator, is speaking for the first time about the part he played in investigating the worst single terrorist atrocity on British soil.
He says: “I’ve never felt ready to talk about what happened until now. I’ve tried to live a quiet life and commemorate the anniversaries in my own way. At the time, you are on autopilot doing your job and then it’s only afterwards reflecting I’ve realised how its affected me.”
That morning, Thursday, July 7 2005, London had been basking in the pride and excitement of winning the Olympic bid before joy suddenly turned into terror.
Across the city, four suicide bombers with rucksacks full of explosives killed 52 people and injured hundreds more. Three of the bombs were detonated on trains across central London, at around the same 8.50 am – the height of morning rush hour. Later, at around 9.50 a.m, there was an explosion on a bus.
Mark was on a day off on July 7 and it was his dad who first alerted him to the bombings. when he called him to say he had seen the news and asked if he was safe. Mark raced to New Scotland Yard to begin work on what would turn into the most emotionally, mentally and physically exhausting investigation of his career .
Mark remembers: “I had never come across anything like what I saw after 7/7. As anti terror police, we train for it, we see photos, we see videos, but nothing can mentally prepare you for the real experience of it.
“The heat, the smell, the sights a feeling of this is this really real? It felt like I was in a nightmare, and any moment I would wake up.”
Mark and his team had to work towards the blast, towards the bodies so slowly recovering exhibits and evidence, along the way.
He says: Those people deserve the respect of being taken off those carriages immediately but we couldn’t risk losing evidence. I found myself speaking to them, apologising, ‘Sorry I will be with you soon’.
But it was something else he found most heartbreaking: “The hardest thing was not so much what we did down the tunnels. It was when we left the tunnels and walked past the families who were standing on the other side of the barrier with pictures of their loved ones.
“That memory will always haunt me.
“Every day for the two weeks we were working, the families would be there. We suspected it was their loved ones who died, but we had to wait for forensics to be completed. I found that so hard. “
Mark joined the Met aged 21 as a PC working in Peckham. After rising through the ranks, he became a detective in the MET’s murder squad.
On September 11, 2001, he watched two planes hit the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York
“Watching the first tower collapse changed my life. It was clearly an act of terrorism and if it could happen in the US, it could happen here. I knew I wanted to work in the battle against terror.”
The father-of-two remembers the race against time in the immediate aftermath of 7/7 to find who was responsible – and prevent more loss of life.
He says: “My wife tried to shelter our children, telling them: ‘Daddy is away working on something horrible,” he says, “But it was all over the news, and it’s hard to shield them from that.
“I eventually did come home after two weeks, I arrived all bedraggled, and the kids were waiting outside the house to run up the driveway to greet me. All the neighbours were there, too, crying.”
But soon after, London was under attack again. Four more attempted suicide bombers attacked Oval, Warren Street, Hackney, and Shepherd’s Bush. This time, the explosions were unsuccessful, and nobody was killed or injured. The manhunt to find the failed suicide bombers was on.
Mark recalls: “Our feet didn’t touch the ground. There were people to catch. And we didn’t know how soon they would try again.
“I was away from home again for weeks. Me and my colleagues all stayed in hotels because after 7/7 they were all empty, nobody wanted to live in London. We grabbed sleep when we could. We had a huge responsibility to stop this happening again. It was a terrible kick in the teeth that it happened again and so soon after 7/7.”
Other detectives had joined the anti-terror branch to increase manpower.
“The size of the branch temporarily quadrupled immediately after 7/7, so we didn’t have enough police vehicles.
“So we were driving around in unmarked cars – and trying to get to one part of London to another without blue lights.
“But I could almost feel public willing us on “we think we know what you’re doing and you are running around to try and protect us.
“For those weeks after 7/7 and the 21 / 7 attempt, as a policeman, I never felt so supported by the public as I did then.”
By July 29 2005 police had tracked down and arrested all four suspects in the failed bombings. The final two were caught together in London.
Mark recalls: “Hearing over the comms while I was searching another address that we got the two outstanding suspects at Notting Hill that was a massive sigh of relief. The immediate threat had been nullified.”
In November 2005 Mark received a commendation for his work after 7/7 at a ceremony attended by his-proud son and daughter.
He says: “I gave my commendation to my son. In all honesty, I am not proud of it because of the way it was obtained, because it was the result of such a bad, terrible thing that affected so many people.
“Over the past two decades, I’ve tried very much to stay below the radar in terms of my involvement with the investigation. It’s been painful, and I’ve never wanted to talk about it.
“At the time, you are on autopilot doing your job, and then it’s only afterwards, reflecting, I’ve realised how it affected me. But it’s nothing compared to what the hundreds of people who were just on their way to work went through.
“I will never begin to imagine how ordinary people then had to walk past what I had to see in those tunnels. And the members of the public who were so brave when the bomb went off in an effort to save people.
“On each anniversary, I’ve dealt with it privately – have a very quiet day and speak to no one.
“It’s one time I take what happened out of the box.
“A lot of time has passed, now. Today it feels right for me to speak out so that the memories of the people affected and those who lost ther lives are never forgotten.”