Westminster attack inquests - latest updates: Coroner gives conclusions on how victims of terror attacker Khalid Masood died
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The inquests into the deaths of the victims of the Westminster attack are due to conclude.
Chief coroner Mark Lucraft QC is due to give his conclusions at the Old Bailey on the deaths of four civilians and police officer Keith Palmer, who were murdered by terrorist Khalid Masood.
He will consider whether factors including security at the Houses of Parliament, the lack of barriers on Westminster Bridge, police body armour and security service investigations into Masood played a role in their deaths.
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On Tuesday the court heard closing submissions, with Jonathan Hough QC, for the coroner, saying the inquests should conclude all five victims were unlawfully killed.
He said: “Each was murdered in a terrorist atrocity which was no less brutal for its lack of sophistication.”
Masood, 52, drove into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge on March 22 last year, killing American tourist Kurt Cochran, 54, retired window cleaner Leslie Rhodes, 75, Aysha Frade, 44, and Romanian tourist Andreea Cristea, 31.
He then stormed through gates near the Houses of Parliament and fatally stabbed Pc Palmer with two knives.
In his closing argument, Gareth Patterson QC, for families of victims on the bridge, urged the coroner to make a report on the circumstances of the case to “protect the public”.
On the role of MI5, whose knowledge of Masood has been heavily scrutinised, he said: “We do think there is room for improvement in terms of decision-making.”
He suggested security services should look again at when to investigate suspects and when to stop, and to take account of violent backgrounds.
Mr Patterson also called for the Government to “try again” with tightening rules for hiring cars.
Dominic Adamson, representing PC Palmer's widow Michelle, said that there was “a systematic failure” in protecting unarmed officers on guard at the Palace of Westminster.
He told the coroner: “In my submission it is very clear that you can be satisfied that as a result of those failures the consequences for Pc Palmer were that there was a substantial loss of the opportunities for him to be saved.”
No firearms officer had been near Carriage Gates, where Pc Palmer was on duty, for nearly an hour before Masood's attack.
Susannah Stevens, representing the officer's family, said: “If there had been authorised firearms officers present at that time, in our submission, on the balance of probabilities they would have been able to prevent a loss of an opportunity of saving Pc Palmer's life.
”Or to put it another way, on the balance of probabilities, their absence contributed to Pc Palmer's death.“
The court will hear further closing submissions in the morning, before the coroner begins giving his conclusions.
Mr Ellwood said PC Palmer had lost a significant amount of blood from wounds to his chest, including one that had pierced his lung.
He fell unconscious and his heart and breathing stopped. Mr Ellwood started CPR, doing chest compressions while another person attended to his breathing.
Paramedics and the air ambulance arrived, asking him to continue. An air ambulance doctor, performed open chest surgery at the scene, at one point pumping PC Palmer's heart with his hand.
Mr Ellwood told a doctor that he would have to tell him to stop performing CPR and the doctor replied the affirmative, saying it was all they could do.
Mr Ellwood said that people recognised Parliament's vulnerablilty as a symbol of democracy, and the balance between transparency, allowing members of the public to visit, and security
Mr Ellwood called on people to "step forward" in terror attacks to help, to get the messages that terrorists "will not win". He did not want protective measures to change the face of Parliament and British life
Anthony Davis, who was leaving a charity event at the Palace of Westminster, saw Masood launching the attack on PC Palmer
He described police officers coming towards him shouting at him to run, but he had first aid training and jumped over the fence to help.
Mr Davis "tried to reassure Keith" and notied a head wound first, before noticing the wound heavily under his arm.
Dr Hudson, of the London Air Ambulance team, said he was initially called to an RTC on Westminster Bridge but had an update to say there were at least 20 patients and knew they were en route to a significant incident
They were unable to land immediately in the built-up area and surveyed the scene from the air. The helicopter landed at 14.56
Police at Parliament were not then aware of the extent of casualties on the bridge and knew only of the attack on PC Palmer and casualties immediately around Masood's crashed car
Dr Hudson decided to go directly to Parliament and started working on PC Palmer. He said they started a blood transfusion before the officer went into cardiac arrest, and attempted several other surgical interventions
He said that even in an operating theatre it would have been "extremely rare" to resuscitate anyone with PC Palmer's injuries
A Home Office pathologist found a stab wound that had penetrated so deep it scored the officer's skull, and several other in his chest.
One struck his left lung and hit a major blood vessel and penetrated the heart. The wound had a depth of 18cm.
Others were to his chest and arm, while there were defensive cuts to his arm and wrist
PC Palmer was also stabbed in the thigh. Dr Chapman gave the cause of death as haemorrage as a result of stab wounds to the chest and said his injuries were non-survivable.
Examination of body armour found that where it covered, the blades had not penetrated PC Palmer's skin. The area where the fatal wound was inflicted was not covered, nor would it be by any available body armour apart from that used by some soldiers in Afghanistan.
It would be "unsuitable" for police officers because it restricts their range of movement.
Judge Lucraft is now addressing security outside Parliment.
He says two officers were patrolling New Palace Yard armed with a Glock and Heckler and Koch carbine each.
PC Ashby was "not aware of any post instructions". When asked whether he was aware of 2015 instructions to operate in close proximity to Carriage Gates when they were open, he "was clear that he was not"
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