TERRORISM SURVIVOR: I HAD DEATH THREATS
▶ Teenager hurt in London attack says the government failed him
A teenager mown down by a terrorist’s car during the worst attack on British soil for 12 years received death threats from extremists as he lay injured in hospital, The National has learnt.
Travis Frain, 19, received abusive messages on social media from extremists and the farright who suggested he was making up his unwanted role in the attack by a British-born terrorist who killed five and injured 50 in London in March last year.
Mr Frain told of the threats as he revealed how he felt neglected by British authorities in the months after the attacks and called for reforms to a system illequipped to cope with the needs of survivors of terrorism.
He was forced to wait for 10 weeks for an appointment with Britain’s state-run health service to address the traumatic mental effects of the attack, despite pleas for swifter treatment from specialist advisers and his doctor.
When Mr Frain finally got an appointment, he was told by a specialist to drink a warm glass of milk to help him sleep better.
“I know it sounds like a joke but you couldn’t make it up,” he said.
The unit that treated Mr Frain has not responded to requests for comment.
He has written to the prime minister, Theresa May, to tell of his concerns. He has also become a trustee of a charity that specialises in the care of victims of terrorism because it provided “the only reliable and constant source of assistance”.
“We didn’t get anything from the government,” Mr Frain said.
The history and politics student was walking across London’s Westminster Bridge when he was hit by the car driven by Khalid Masood, a radicalised Briton, who had taken anabolic steroids before the attack, an hearing heard on Monday.
Mr Frain was thrown on to the bonnet of the car as it was driven along the pavement outside the parliament building. He was tossed aside and left with injuries including a broken leg, broken hand, torn ligament, whiplash and cuts.
Masood killed four pedestrians during the attack and then fatally stabbed a policeman guarding parliament before he was shot dead by other officers. The attack was the first of five that rocked Britain last year, killing 36 people.
Mr Frain received the first threat on Facebook a day after the attack from what seemed to be a conspiracy theorist who accused him of treason and made a threat against his life. Police officers encouraged him to report the abuse.
The London force passed the case to colleagues in Manchester but the “malicious communication” has not been pursued for three months. “Officers investigated, however no arrests were made,” said the Manchester force. “In October 2017 the crime was filed. However, should further information come to light we will continue to investigate.”
Mr Frain said he was not told that officers in Manchester were investigating the case, or that it had been effectively closed.
“I don’t want to say abandoned because it’s a strong word, but it’s along those lines,” he said of his experiences after the attack.
“That’s how one of my friends summed it up, one of the other lads involved. He said it almost like when you’ve left London, it’s all over. Governments and all sorts of services prepare for years for these sorts of things.
“When it came around, it didn’t feel like there was any clear direction.”
Mr Frain was not alone in receiving abuse. Some trolls accused victims of trying to cash in on what had happened by talking to media after attacks in London and Manchester, health authorities said.
The National Health Service England said that “innocent people have unwittingly been the target of trolls who use social media to prey on victims, subjecting them to vile and upsetting abuse”.
Mr Frain’s experiences followed similar complaints from victims of an attack on Berlin’s Christmas markets in 2016. Families complained that they had nobody to speak to after the attacks and faced a series of bureaucratic hurdles to secure compensation.
A government-appointed ombudsman called for improvements to the system.