Secret love tells of her night with 7/7 terror bomber

The woman, identified only as witness A, broke down in tears yesterday as she described how she believed Shehzad Tanweer had been in love with her but they had kept their relationship hidden from friends and family for more than three years.

Hugo Keith QC, counsel to the hearing, asked her: “Did he give you any indication of his feelings for you?”

She replied: “Yes, I got good vibes from him that he loved me.”

Tanweer, 22, and witness A spent the night of July 1, 2005, together in a hotel, six days before the atrocities in London.

But the woman told the London hearing she had no idea Tanweer had become radicalised or was planning to carry out the terrorist attacks.

Instead he told her he was going to spend the following week on holiday in Scotland and had plans to see her on his return.

Mr Keith, said: “You spent the night together on July 1 2005 because you went to a hotel. Is that right?” “Yes,” she replied.

The couple were “close but not intimate” during their time in the hotel, she added.

Mr Keith continued: “In your witness statement you said he told you he was about to go away from a week. Where?”

She replied: “Scotland.”

He added: “Who with?” to which she replied: “I assumed with family.”

Asked what mood Tanweer had been in, she replied: “Fine.”

The inquest into the deaths of 52 people who died in the suicide bombings on July 7, 2005, has already heard how Tanweer killed seven innocent people when he set off his home-made rucksack bomb on a Circle Line tube train near Aldgate station.

He had joined ringleader Mohammed Sidique Khan, 30, Hassib Hussain, 18, both also from Leeds, in travelling to the capital that morning, joining the fourth bomber Jermaine Lindsay, 19, who grew up in Huddersfield, in Luton before they all travelled into King’s Cross in London.

The inquest heard that the woman and Tanweer started secretly seeing each other shortly before 2002. She described him as a sports fan who was not particularly religious but did observe Ramadan.

They lost touch but Tanweer reignited the relationship at the beginning of 2005 – sending her an unexpected text message explaining he was planning to move to Dubai with his family.

The couple kept in touch and met up again secretly in June 2005, when, Witness A said, they had discussed spending their future together.

Mr Keith asked: “Did you discuss what the future would hold for him?”

Witness A then broke down in tears.

Tanweer was believed to be single and the reason why he wanted to keep their relationship secret was not disclosed but the inquest has heard how revealing witness A’s identity would have a devastating effect on her reputation and safety.

She repeatedly told the hearing she had no idea what Tanweer had been planning but acknowledged that she was aware he had travelled to Pakistan.

She said that when she met him again in June his appearance had changed. “He had blonde parts in his hair and eyebrows and the hairs on his arms,” she said. “He said it was sun-bleached from Pakistan.”

Mr Keith asked her: “Might we presume that you must have been as shocked as everyone else when he did what he subsequently did?”

She said: “I was, yes.”

He told her that she had been the subject of “gross deceit.”

The inquest was adjourned.