The family of murdered policeman Keith Palmer have accused Scotland Yard of ‘feeling like they are on trial’ at his inquest.
Miss Michelle Palmer, the sister to Mr Palmer who was killed in last year’s Westminster Bridge attack, said the family feel they are treated as if they had ‘come below’ terrorist Khalid Masood.
Last year, Masood killed five people after driving onto Westminster Bridge in London and mowing down pedestrians.
Masood drove a Hyundai into the railings of Parliament, and ran into New Palace Yard before stabbing PC Keith Palmer.
Palmer was unarmed and did not have a stun gun.
The late policeman’s sisters, Miss Michelle Palmer and Mrs Angela Clark, want to find out why their brother was unarmed at the time of the attack in March last year.
They also want to find out if having armed officers nearby would have prevented his death.
Muslim convert and terrorist Masood was only stopped after he was shot dead by a security close protection officer, who was reportedly the then-defence secretary Michael Fallon’s bodyguard.
Mr Palmer was stationed at Carriage Gates, the MP’s entrance to Parliament at the time of the attack.
Prime Minister Theresa May is pictured laying a floral tribute outside parliament a year after the attack
The sisters said they fear not getting the truth about why their brother was left unprotected that day.
The sisters insisted they faced hostility from the Metropolitan Police in the inquest process and worried that younger officers were being scapegoated for security breaches that enabled Masood to drive into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge.
The sisters also spoke on behalf of their mother, aged 71, at the inquest.
Miss Palmer told The Times: ‘Keith gave his life and we are left with no answers.
‘Eighteen months on we were hoping for some closure, but we’re not going to have that.
‘We are not valued, not wanted, we feel like we are on trial.’
Official documents from Scotland Yard have shown two armed officers were supposed to remain on the gates on the day of the attack in March 2017.
However, the inquest was told officers had been instructed to carry out ‘roving patrols’, which means guarding a designated area.
They had been ordered to do this verbally, instead of having the armed duty officers at the gates as planned.
The Palmer family cannot get legal aid to probe whether an armed duty officer would have shot Masood dead before the killer had a chance to knife Palmer.
The chief coroner will sum up the inquest on Wednesday.
