Chilling CCTV footage of Khalid Masood mowing down victims on Westminster Bridge has been shown during an inquest into the terror attack.
Masood, 52, killed four people and injured dozens more when he drove into them as they walked over the bridge on 22 March 2017, then stabbed PC Keith Palmer to death at New Palace Yard.
The family of victim Aysha Frade left the courtroom on Monday as counsel to the inquest, Jonathan Hough QC, warned that the footage would be graphic and distressing.
It showed the mother-of-two being thrown in the air as she was hit by the rented SUV, before she was run over by a bus. It also showed another victim, Andreea Cristea, being thrown off the bridge into the Thames and Masood stabbing Palmer as he had lay prone against a low wall.
The hearing was earlier told that 43-year-old Frade worried about the risk of terrorism when her job moved to the area, as pen portraits from the victims’ loved ones were heard.
Frade’s sister, Michelle Grade, read an emotionally charged statement to the hearing, saying: “People cannot understand how this despicable act of futile atrocity has impacted on not only her families’ lives but also herself.
“She will never be able to smile again, see her daughters grow up.”
After explaining Frade’s fears about terrorism, she added: “Aysha and all the other victims of this tragedy are people and not just statistics or a name that will be forgotten once this inquest is over.”
Frade’s husband, John, also addressed the hearing. “The truth is that she still doesn’t feel like she’s gone, her love surrounds us, her aura lights up the paths of life’s journey,” he said.
The inquest also heard tributes to American tourist Kurt Cochran, who would have been 55 yesterday. Cochran died after pushing his wife, Melissa, out of the way when Masood began his rampage.
Reading a statement written by Melissa, her sister said: “He was my best friend, my husband, my everything. His heroic actions that fateful day saved my life.”
Four of the people who died in the attack were civilians, and the fifth was PC Palmer who was remembered on Monday by his colleague, Chief Inspector Sawyer.
“Being a police officer was Keith’s dream job,” he said. He was always immaculately turned out and physically fit.
“He was that brave person who would stand his ground. His actions bought time for people inside the Palace.”
Romanian tourist Cristea, 31, and Leslie Rhodes, 75, also died when they were hit by Masood’s car on Westminster Bridge.
Cristea’s family, some of them following the inquest from the British Embassy in Budapest, provided an audio recording that was played in court.
The statement from her family included a note from Cristea, which was written on her final New Year’s Eve in which she told of her hopes for the coming year. “The year 2017 will be the best of my life,” she wrote.
Cristea hoped she would be “happy, cheerful and jovial”, have a successful business and buy a new house, which she planned on decorating.
“I will have a wonderful man by my side, who will love and cherish me and with this man I will start a wonderful family,” the note said.
Her family said they had been “hoping for a miracle” when she was in hospital following the attack and told of their “heartbreakingly sad” loss when she died two weeks later.
“All her dreams were shattered when she went on her final trip to England, London, and she suddenly became the victim of the Westminster terror attacks,” their statement said. Today would have been Cristea’s 33rd birthday.
Retired window cleaner Rhodes was on his way home from an appointment at St Thomas’s hospital when the attack took place.
His niece, Amanda Rhodes, told how the family was “devastated” and “incredibly angry” on hearing of his death.
“Everyone loved him. He would do anything to help anyone who needed it,” she said.
The inquest heard that the attack was “82 seconds of terrible drama”, which ended when attacker Masood was shot dead by then Defence Secretary Michael Fallon’s personal bodyguard.
Judge Mark Lucraft QC is overseeing the inquest, which is expected to last 5 to 6 weeks.