7/7 and 21/7 – Delving into Room 101

A personal history of two major London bombings.

An insider’s description of dealing with major terrorist outrages.

A personal reflection of the professional and emotional aspects of dealing with these horrific events.

Cliff Todd was a forensic scientist completely involved with all aspects of both the 7/7 and 21/7 terrorist bombings in London. Cliff continued to be closely connected to the various court cases that followed these harrowing events up until his retirement from the forensics department of the MOD in 2013. It was only with this retirement that he was able to properly review his involvement with these terrorist outrages. Up until this point, through his connection with the actual events and the ongoing prosecutions, he had always had to look at these two major bombings from an entirely professional and objective perspective. Now he was able to look at them from a much more personal and reflective viewpoint.
Then, following the sudden death of his wife, Cliff started to write some simple memoirs, purely as personal therapy. One of these became a narrative of his involvement with these bombings. What started out as a straightforward history of this disaster rapidly turned into a much more personal recollection of that time. He realised that he had locked away a much less professional and more emotive reaction to these events in a ‘Room 101’ within his memory. It was this story of these bombings, from the initial scenes of devastation to the subsequent court cases, and the effects that they had unknowingly had on him that now make up this book.
This is a human story, at times horrific and sad but also containing the excitement and humour that accompanies these kind of incidents. It shows an intimate portrait of the people and proceedings going on behind the scenes, and also a much more detailed description of dealing with these bombing than most of us will see from the news reports on them.

An acknowledged international expert in his field, Cliff Todd was based at the Forensic Explosives Laboratory (FEL) at Dstl, Sevenoaks, until he retired in 2013. He lead high profile forensic explosives investigations including the 2005 London bombings and the 2006 airlines terror plot, and provided important prosecution evidence at the associated trials. In 2009 Cliff received an O.B.E. for services in the forensics field.