2 years on, still no legal aid for London Bridge attack families

After jihadi bride had hers approved in weeks

‘We were in a David and Goliath battle’

GRIEVING relatives of victims of the London Bridge terror attack have not received a penny in legal aid in their quest for justice.

The inquest into the eight who were killed starts tomorrow and is expected to expose serious failings by the security services.

Government agencies have used public funds to hire some of the best lawyers to represent their interests at a cost of almost £1million.

But families of the victims have not received any public money to help them uncover the truth about what happened during the London Bridge atrocity in June 2017 when three attackers drove a van into pedestrians and launched a knife attack.

Instead, the families are being forced to go through a complicated and circuitous application process, filling out intrusive means-testing forms which require them to list their assets and those of their dead relatives.

The families of loved ones who died in the Westminster terror attack in March 2017, in which five people died, are also still waiting, possibly in vain, for legal aid payments – seven months after the inquest into the deaths. Some believe they will never see a penny from the Government.

The Westminster families had their claim rejected because their terrorism experts were not on an approved legal-aid list. They are appealing against the decision.

The London Bridge families are using the same lawyers – but have attached their claim to a legal aid firm in an attempt to get their funding approved. They submitted their claim last month and await a decision.

By contrast, jihadi bride Shamima Begum was swiftly granted legal aid three weeks ago to fight the decision to remove her British citizenship.

It means taxpayers face a legal bill which could run into hundreds of thousands of pounds to fund the former London schoolgirl’s fight to return to the UK from a refugee camp in Syria.

Last night there was fury that relatives of the London Bridge atrocity must rely on the goodwill of lawyers to represent them free of charge at the two-month inquest at the Old Bailey.

John Frade, whose wife Aysha was killed in the Westminster attack, said: ‘I have now lost faith in the system. It is incredible that someone who supports terrorism like Shamima Begum can be granted legal aid, but the victims of terrorism are forgotten. That is not the action of a normal civilised country.’ Mr Frade, 43, described the legal aid process as ‘incredibly intrusive’ and said he was forced to put down the value of his wife’s wedding ring.

‘It was a very difficult time as I was trying to write a tribute to Aysha for the inquest and work out what questions I wanted answered about how she died.

‘The level of detail they were seeking was very intrusive and the process was emotionally sapping.’ The father- of- two added: ‘I felt I didn’t have a voice. All the Government agencies were being represented, and most had two or three people in court. It was almost as if our voices did not matter. It felt like we were in a David and Goliath battle.’

he said it is ‘highly unlikely’ that the law firm he used will get paid which ‘ makes a complete mockery’ of the process.

The Westminster inquest lasted three weeks and contained 6,500 documents. Government agencies claim they spent £493,000 on legal fees.

The state legal bill for the twomonth London Bridge inquest is likely to be double this sum.

Chief coroner Mark Lucraft QC, who presided over the Westminster inquest and will do the same for the London Bridge hearings, highlighted the lack of financial support for families in a report in 2017. The Government rejected his suggestion.

Lawyer helen Boniface, of hogan Lovells, who is representing six families at the inquest, said: ‘It is incredibly difficult to understand that people who have been through what they have, and been promised all the support, are left with all this uncertainty.’

The Government insists that there is no right to legal aid at inquests because they are not considered ‘adversarial’, even though it is paying around £1million to lawyers to avoid blame for the killings.

Deborah Coles, director of campaign group Inquest, said: ‘It flies in the face of the government’s so- called concerns for victims of terrorist attacks.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: ‘While our review of legal aid showed that legal representation is not necessary for bereaved families at the vast majority of inquests, we are making changes to ensure there’s more support for them.’