A taxi driver who suffered horrific injuries after a terror attack at a hospital says he is still traumatised by the image of the bomber's "smiling" face just before the blast went off.
David Perry recalled fearing 'something was going to happen' on the morning of Remembrance Sunday last year, before he picked up Emad Al-Swealmeen and drove him to Liverpool Women's Hospital.
After accepting the fare from Mr Al-Swealmeen's flat on Rutland Avenue, near Sefton Park, David recalls how he became increasingly nervous and suspicious about his passenger.
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David, 46, told the Mirror, he felt an odd and 'chilling silence' behind him as he tried to make small talk and asked the bomber if his wife had had a baby.
Moments later, as he pulled up at the hospital entrance, Al-Swealmeen inexplicably triggered his homemade explosive that contained 1,000 ball bearings.
David’s first thought was he had been tail-ended – until, in shock, he smelt burning flesh and scrambled out of the blazing car with a fractured back, shrapnel wounds and multiple burns. Dazed and with blown eardrums he even tried to get back into the car to find his phone so he could call his wife.
A year on from the blast, he said: "Even now I don’t think anyone can understand how I’m alive. But my injuries are nothing when you think he could have gone into the hospital and done a lot more damage than getting me."
Remarkably David feels no hate towards the bomber – instead seeing him as a 'poor lad who had issues'. He feels it was "fate" he was the driver to collect the bomber on November 14 last year. David said: "It was a normal work day.
"But it’s the strangest thing, I thought 'something is going to happen today'. David chose the fare himself off the on-screen display as the pick-up address, Rutland Avenue, was not far from him.
But his concern began when he had an unusually long wait outside the Toxteth block of flats before Al-Swealmeen came out. "He had a Middle East accent. I remember him having a backpack or bag.
"He was so quick getting in behind the seat. He sank out of the way in my blind spot. I thought, 'this isn’t right, why is he doing this?'. All he said was 'women’s hospital.'"
Then it was silence as David began the five minute trip. A cabbie who likes chatting, he felt strangely uncomfortable. As a dad himself he tried to start small talk.
David said: "Just before getting to the hospital, I said to him 'has your wife had a baby mate?' But I got no response at all and I thought 'something is not right here’.' I’ve looked in the mirror and I’ve just got this picture of a clown smiling at me and holding something."
Then the bomb went off – but David’s first thought was: "Why has a wagon just smashed into me". He says the voice of a 'guardian angel' told him to get out of his Ford Focus estate.
As he put his weight against the door, his seatbelt fell away. "A flash of light hit me. I couldn’t see anything, just white smoke. All I could smell was burning.
"I could smell him burning, I was burning. I knew he was all over me. When I looked down there was a bit of light where the door had billowed open at the bottom and I heard 'get out'."
Panicked hospital staff tried to usher him inside. But David wanted to rescue his belongings from the burning car. He tried in vain to find his phone to ring wife Rachel. He was blue-lighted to Fazakerley Hospital where doctors were waiting.
He recalls: "When we got there the ambulance driver got out and said you’re going to be scared. The doors opened and there were about a hundred doctors waiting.
"I thought ‘they haven’t told me I’m dying’. It felt like I got strapped to every possible machine and I thought, ’I’m dead here’.”
David’s back was fractured in three places, his body had multiple burns and shrapnel injuries and he was bleeding from both ears with both eardrums burst. His left ear had been almost blown off.
But checks for major internal injuries were clear and attention turned to counter terrorism police who wanted to collect evidence from him.
They laid down a tarpaulin at the hospital, while he peeled off his T-shirt and picked parts of the bomb out of his body. As CCTV footage of David’s cab exploding circulated on the news, his friends and family recognised the registration plate and feared the worst.
Wife Rachel, 41, was terrified as two police officers arrived at her door. She told David later: "I knew who they were – they were in suits. I thought they were coming to tell me you were dead and I just dropped to the floor."
When Rachel ran into the hospital to see him along with his mum, Maria, 71, David said: "I was standing up talking to the doctor. Rachel was crying and asking me what’s going on. She was in disbelief I was standing up and talking. She went to give me a hug and I said don’t as I was still covered in everything and I felt sore."
After discharging himself, big-hearted David demanded doctors give two elderly people waiting in the corridor his bed and another that was free. He was dropped off at his mum’s house by counter terrorism agents. He wanted to reassure his family and friends he was OK.
"I could see them all talking but I couldn’t hear them. I was looking at people’s mouths and all I could hear was ‘arrrh’, my brain was just shaking."
Later at home David recalls: "It wasn’t really until I’d had a bath that everything came off me and even then it took weeks. Bits of bomb, bits of flesh, bits of hair."
He remains haunted by the odour, adding: "Every now and then, because we live by the docks, there will be a smell of burning plastic. I think I’m back in the car with the smell of him burning on me."
David cannot forgive Al-Swealmeen for what he did – but he has no hatred for him and instead sees him as a "poor lad who had issues who killed himself."
He said of his fateful pick-up: "It’s the worst decision I ever made. Or the best if you think it saved people from getting killed. Better me than a baby getting blown up."
David does not see himself as a hero but instead feels he 'got away with it'. He said: "I think everyone was in disbelief I survived, especially when you see the video. If you’d have been the driver who dropped a terrorist off who killed a baby, you’d never live with yourself. It would be impossible, being a father myself."
I have been diagnosed with PTSD and still have flashbacks
Speaking to the Mirror in his first interview since the attack, David said he has been diagnosed with PTSD and still has flashbacks of his ordeal.
The 46-year-old, from Liverpool, said he was still finding bits of the bomb in his body several months down the line. He has been receiving counselling and hopes he will be able to return to work soon.
Recalling the weeks after the explosion, David said he felt fearful that other terrorists would come looking for him. On the night it happened, he stayed up late with his wife to witness his attacker being pictured for the first time.
“I wanted to see who it was, I wanted to know if I recognised him or if I’d seen his face," David explained. "But when I saw him it was just another lunatic to me, another evil person.”
David said: “Paranoia takes over, you start thinking people are coming to finish you off. You’re round the bend, you’re looking out the window, you don’t sleep, you are permanently glued to the telly, you’re addicted to the news, you’re waiting to hear if anyone is involved."
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David struggled to sleep in the months following the attack and said psychological problems, including PTSD, started to kick in. "You can’t cope and you can slip into a hole," he said. “It’s like depression, things start getting on top of you, it’s like a battle trying to get yourself out. It was a really bad place, not just for me, but for my wife and kids, everyone was struggling.”
It wasn't until six months after the attack that David sought professional help, when his wife approached the topic with him. “When you’re down you don’t realise the way you are," he said. “Everything is a battle, getting up is a battle, having a shower is a battle.”
David also feared he was cursed after coming across a stranger in the midst of a suicide attempt just days later. He said: “The worst thing about it is you think everything around you is going to cause an accident. I think three or four days later, a woman was trying to throw herself in front of a wagon on Stanley Road. We had to phone the emergency services to stop her killing herself. It felt like if someone came near me something was going to happen to them.”
David's nightmares of being threatened are now becoming more frequent, he told the Mirror. “The last couple of nights, the closer I’m getting to the weekend, the tinnitus has been getting louder and louder and the nightmares kick-in. It is all part of stress.”
While he has been unable to return to work, David hopes he may be able to get back out on the roads soon. For now, his days are spent mentally and physically recovering from the ordeal, enjoying family time and taking care of the dogs.
He said: “I’ve started driving over the last couple of months, not far, to the shops or to my mum’s. The first couple of months I didn’t know how I would cope driving, you don’t know how you are going to react. The thought of someone sitting behind you isn’t a great thing but it is a fear that you have to get over.”
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