July 7 London terror attack hero 'homeless and living in car for eight weeks' as 7/7 anniversary approaches

1 July 2024, 13:41 | Updated: 1 July 2024, 16:31

A 7/7 hero who was one of the first paramedics to respond to the Tavistock Square bus bombings has been living in his car for weeks after being denied a suitable council flat.

David Warman, 54, has been homeless for 56 days after not being allocated accommodation that met his needs by his local council in south-east London.

Mr Warman, who is HIV-positive and has had cancer, said his physical and mental health has suffered considerably as a result of his stay.

“Physically, I’ve now got lots of sores and boils, he said. “Mentally, stress is a huge problem when you have HIV.

“I’ve already lost a stone in weight. I’ve been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis as well. It’s been very difficult.”

Next Sunday is July 7, the 19th anniversary of the Islamist terror attacks in central London that killed 52 innocent victims and injured over 700.

One of the four bombs detonated was on a bus as it went through Tavistock Square in Bloomsbury, in central London at 9.47 that morning. A total of 13 of the passengers died.

Mr Warman worked for the St John Ambulance at the time. He was on his way to the office when he was met by a police officer who asked him to go to the scene urgently.

Within ten minutes, he was tending to victims of the bombing and said he saw saw "horrific" things.

“This time of year is never easy,” he said. “You know, people might say ‘move on, it was 19 years ago, but it’s not like that for me. It’s 19 years on, but sometimes it’s just like it was yesterday.”

Mr Warman suffered mentally after the attacks. "It changed me ever since then," he said.

Reliving the scene, he said: "I was there within minutes. There were three paramedics, an ambulance technician. There was about half a dozen doctors from the BMA itself," he added. The British Medical Association, the doctors’ union, is on Tavistock Square.

But after mentally reliving his route through central London to the square, he added: “I would do it all again, I wouldn’t divert away from it.

“I did save someone’s life, which was a Polish bloke that had a massive arterial bleed. I keep in touch with him.”

But he said that he hadn’t been back to reunions of victims’ families since the ten-year anniversary.

"Ever since ten years on I’ve not gone back; I decided that ten years was enough. You have families still wanting to talk to you. You get to ten years, I wasn’t well myself then, you have to say enough’s enough."

He was given a St John Ambulance exceptional service award, as well as a letter of commendation. He was also invited to a reception at Downing Street hosted by then-Prime Minister Tony Blair. He said he had had some support from St John Ambulance.

But Mr Warman’s mental and physical health suffered in the ensuing years.

He said he was given six months to live over 12 years ago after his cancer and HIV diagnoses. He stopped working in October 2011 and attempted suicide only a few days afterwards, suffering a brain injury in the process.

Mr Warman’s descent into homelessness started after he was told to leave his private rented accommodation because the owner sold up.

He said Bexley Council then allocated him inappropriate housing. He said the council claimed he had rejected the offer of a flat, though he said he wanted to accept. He has been sleeping in his car ever since.

Mr Warman said: "Friends have said on Facebook that I should just go over on a dinghy to France and come back and then I’ll be alright. That’s a joke obviously but it just goes to show how hard it’s been."

He said he had always been a Tory, but this episode with the Conservative-controlled Bexley Council had shaken his political convictions. “Cut me in half and I’m blue, but I won’t vote Conservative come the 4th of July”.

He described his predicament as “quite sad.”

“I don’t want handouts, I just want what I thought I had - I thought I had the right to be looked after by my local council.”

A spokesperson for Bexley Council said it did not comment on individual cases.