The terrorist who blew himself up outside Liverpool Women's Hospital said only two words before the blast.
David Perry felt an odd and "chilling silence" behind him as he tried to make small talk with Emad Al-Swealmeen during the five minute journey from his flat in Rutland Avenue to Liverpool Women's Hospital on Remembrance Day last year.
One year on, David 46, said he is still haunted by the “clown-like” grin on the bomber's face as he glanced at him in his rear-view mirror seconds before the bomb went off. David feels it was “fate” he was the driver to collect the bomber on November 14 last year, the Mirror Online.
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He said: “It was a normal work day. But it’s the strangest thing, I thought ‘something is going to happen today’. He 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. He said: “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. 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.
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.”
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