The Entrance Door at Luton Thames link
Lindsey Exits at 07.15
A CCTV image sequence was released in 2008, at the ‘July 7th’ trial, which showed Germaine Lindsey, one of the four alleged London bombers, leaving Luton the station entrance at 7.15 on the morning of July 7th. The well-known image of the four entering by that same door happens six minutes later. The latter was released days after the event, while the former was only shown three years after. Is the story here consistent, and should we believe it?
One Year Later
A year after the London bombings, there had been some major changes
- Thameslink train service had been dissolved, morphing into First Capital Connect
- The Met’s famous Special Branch had been dissolved after over a hundred years of service, maybe just when it was most needed,
- A solid brick wall had been built at the King’s Cross train station once Thames link, so that investigators could not descend a set of stairs, onto the platform where the Four had allegedly arrived, to check over the alleged sequence of events,
- A new bus-stop had been constructed just where the number 30 bus had first stopped upon turning off Euston Road before reaching Tavistock Square –
- Well over twenty CCTV cameras had proliferated in Stockwell tube station entrance, as if trying to apologise for the CCTV having been dysfunctional on that day when de Menezes had been pursued and shot there on the 22nd July, 2005.
- The government put out its Official Account, telling us what we were supposed to believe. It stated that the four young men entered Luton train station at 07.15 am. That was odd, because the well-known image has the Four entering that station entrance at 07.21 am. The timestamp can be read on the CCTV image. So there was a six-minute discrepancy, but maybe that didn’t matter too much. Rachel North started warbling on about how the station clocks for the CCTV were inaccurate.
Claims kept being made that the police had quite a bit more by way of CCTV images, that would corroborate their story, and then in August of 2008 during the so-called July 7th trial at Kingston, various other bits of CCTV film were released. One of these showed Germaine Lindsay entering Luton station by himself – remember, he had supposedly driven over from Aylesbury and was to meet up with the other three, who were meant to have brought his rucksack with them, that was the story: so on meeting up with them he would have given them the tickets, and put on his dangerous high-explosive rucksack with TATP in, or whatever you want to believe they used for blowing up the trains.
Lindsay was shown entering the station quite early, after 6 o’clock, and spent a while pottering around, presumably buying tickets for himself and the other three – getting return tickets we are told but let’s not digress into that. Finally he went out then came in again, and then exited to go to the car park. And when did he do that? He exited at 07.15.
The Four Enter at 07.21
We are perplexed to notice, that he is not carrying the plastic bag which appears in the well-known image of the Four. All of the images released at the Kingston Trial in 2008 were blurred-out except for a central portion, for whatever reason: we only see Lindsay clearly. He is walking away, and wearing smart new trainers. Six minutes later, he has acquired a rucksack and a plastic bag, the latter looking as if it might contain his sandwich lunch. He is in the centre of the well-known image, and his left-foot trainer is now in an anatomically impossible position – but, we digress.
So he has six minutes to go over to the car-park in Luton Thameslink station, give them the tickets for their Final Journey, put on his heavy, lethal rucksack, containing high explosives, and then return to the Luton Thameslink station entrance going in at 07.21. Do you want to believe he would have done that? We are shown film of the others arriving in the car-park at around 5-10 minutes past seven. We then see what appears to be Lindsay moving over to the car park at around 17 minutes past seven.
While attending the Kingston ‘July 7’ trial last August, one heard quite a bit about mobile phone records as indicating where the various persons on trial were, in journeys they had made. The contents of the phone calls are not recorded, but only where and to whom they are made. We struggle to believe in this six-minute interval, from Lindsey exiting the Luton doorway and then returning with the others, but should there not be some record of their mobile phone calls at Luton station? No-one seemed able to produce any.
On the government’s story, on Lindsay entering the station at around twenty minutes to seven, he will have discovered that the train times were all askew for that morning, that the trains were all delayed. Would he not need to spend some time discussing that with the others, either on his phone or at last by meeting up with them as early as possible? These times do not seem very credible or consistent.
Let’s hear the discerning and well-informed Adrian Connock on this matter:
When one looks into the companies in charge of cctv in London, and understands how the systems are electronically networked, it becomes obvious that those with the knowhow and the connections could access and manipulate cctv. ..People have continued to waste their energy arguing over the veracity of these images – but their authenticity can’t be verified and the time/date can’t be verified – sorry, that’s the world we live in now.
What one can say for certain is that some of the proposed cctv evidence contradicts the official timeline. For example, in the Home Office report the men are noted as passing through the ticket barriers at 07:15, but then according to the same report they’re all back outside the station to pose for camera 14 at 07:21.
I went to Luton station back in 2005 shortly after the attacks, camera 14 is outside – there are no barriers to walk through until you are inside. What did the men do? Buy return tickets, go through the barriers then use the tickets to return back outside, then come back in to the station and buy more return tickets? How the Police/Home Office cock these things up I don’t know, but one can certainly see why some believe they just fabricated the story.
Another example is the cctv video purportedly showing the men removing bags from a car in Luton station car park – the time shown in the version broadcast by the BBC runs up to 19:20 – if this time is correct then this also contradicts the Home Office narrative.
You can view the sequence of CCTV images here. Choose the long sequence (‘July –Luton’). Nine minutes into that you will see the image here shown. The image is also posted here. There is also an archive on Adrian Connock’s site here.
8.3.2010