The police my cousin
just fell apart,” Vivian says. “I was in shock. I didn’t want to believe what was happening. It was terrifying.”
Vivian, who now lives in Knightsbridge, West London, says Jean Charles’s death shattered her mental health.
No police officers faced disciplinary action and Cressida Dick – who oversaw the operation – went on to become the current Met Police Commissioner.
In 2007 four men were jailed for life after being found guilty of conspiracy to murder in relation to the bomb plot.
Hussain Osman, 41, Ramzi Mohammed, 38, Muktar Said Ibrahim, 42, and Yassin Omar, 37, will serve a minimum of 40 years.
At Jean Charles’s inquest, which ended in May 2009, the jury delivered an open verdict. That year, the Met offered an unreserved apology. Vivian returned to London after Jean Charles’s funeral in Brazil. She struggled, initially, to get on the Northern Line and had flashbacks of what his death may have been like.
Vivian said: “At the beginning I couldn’t avoid the thought. I wanted to look for other routes but I said no, that’s where I live, I want to face it, that is what it is.
EVIL
“You have to face it and be brave and with time it became a bit easier.
“I cannot blame the terrorists. I know they do evil things but they didn’t kill my cousin, the police killed him.”
Vivian says armed police should be better briefed, adding: “I think the police should be more trained to deal with these situations. It’s their duty to protect. They had a lot of opportunity to detain him without killing him.”
Vivian misses Jean Charles every day and wishes he could have witnessed her marriage to Brazilian Marcelo Oliveira in 2012. They had baby Luna last year.
She added: “Now I’m a mother myself I can understand about how my aunt felt when she got the news and how terrible it is to say goodbye to a son.
“He had a big potential and I’m sure if he was here today he would be in a very good position. I remember when I went to America that was one of the things he wanted to do but didn’t have the chance. There are a lot of things I can say I did it and in a way I did it for him as well. He carries on living in us.”