Bombs inquest to scrutinise police

Coroner Lady Justice Hallett said it is "not too remote" to investigate what was known in the years before the atrocities took place.

She told the Royal Courts of Justice that inquests into the deaths of the four suicide bombers will also be held separately after controversy the inquests would all be held together.

However, questions over public funding for legal representation for their inquests remained unanswered.

But survivors of the July 7 bombings said they have been "shunted aside" after being excluded from inquests into the deaths of the 52 people who were killed.

Some of those affected by the 2005 atrocities said they were disappointed not to be granted a special status by the coroner which would allow them to question witnesses.

But they pledged to throw their full weight behind Lady Justice Hallett as she tries to get answers for what happened and whether more could have been done to prevent the attacks.

Suicide bombers Mohammed Sidique Khan, 30, Shehzad Tanweer, 22, Hasib Hussain, 18, all from Leeds, Jermaine Lindsay, 19, met at Luton station that morning.

They took a train to King's Cross in London, then hugged and separated to carry out their deadly missions.

Tanweer detonated his bomb at Aldgate, Khan set his device off at Edgware Road and Lindsay blew himself up between King's Cross and Russell Square. Hussain detonated his device on board the number 30 bus at Tavistock Square at 9.47am.

Lawyers for many of the bereaved families campaigned for a broad-ranging investigation of whether the authorities could have prevented the 2005 attacks.

They want to use the inquests to ask MI5 officials why they did not follow up plot ringleader Khan after he was witnessed meeting known terror suspects 17 months before the attacks.

The security service argued this questioning would be both unnecessary and impossible because doing so would require the disclosure of top secret intelligence files.

Counter-terrorism officers photographed and followed Khan in 2004 during an inquiry into a group of extremists planning a fertiliser bomb attack.

But MI5 concluded that diverting resources to place him under detailed investigation or surveillance was not justified.

Neil Garnham QC, counsel for the Home Secretary and MI5, told a pre-inquest hearing that revealing why the security agencies failed to investigate Khan could give al-Qaida terrorists an "invaluable weapon".

It was disclosed last month that West Yorkshire Police have only just discovered that they held Khan's fingerprints on file for 19 years before the attacks.

Tim Coulson, who survived the attacks, said the "door is still open" to appeal against the decision, but they would still have some input as witnesses.

He said: "It hurts to be reminded but there are occasions when it is essential to be reminded of security issues in our country.

"Not to upset people, not to make everybody screw everything down so tightly you cannot move, but to bring about a general awareness.

"If one more person is put in the position some of us are in that is one too many, especially if one more person dies.

"That is unacceptable," added Mr Coulson.

Ernest Adams, whose son James was killed at King's Cross, said he was "delighted" inquests into the bombers' deaths would not be held at the same time.

He said: "The important thing to find out first of all is if it could have been prevented."