Awarded to Police Constable Phil Healy & Police Dog Mojo of British Transport Police.
Presented at Crufts 2018 by Gloucestershire Constabulary Chief Constable Rod Hansen, representing the National Police Chiefs’ Council.
Citation: On 22nd May 2017, after completing an early-turn, Police Dog Mojo and his handler Police Constable Phil Healy were at home when later in the evening Phil saw on the news that there had been an explosion at the Ariana Grande concert being held at the Manchester Arena. Phil and mojo immediately made their way back into work and on their way Phil heard via the police radio that there had been a confirmed explosion and that a device had gone off. It was clear from the transmissions that something very serious had happened. There were confirmed fatalities and many injured. The incident referred to was the confirmed terrorist attack at the Manchester Arena, which left 22 people dead. On arrival at the scene Phil and Mojo were met with disturbing scenes of chaos. He was originally directed to the main concourse area to search the rendezvous point. The station concourse was being used as the causality treatment area for the incident and mojo has to work around the seriously injured and the deceased in order to ensure the safety of the responding emergency services. Both then were swiftly redirected to the arena itself. There were firearms teams who had been advanced into the arena and were now essentially trapped, due to there being so many unattended items, any one of which may have been a secondary device. Phil and Mojo were now on-site where the remains of the bomber were, as well as the deceased and those injured by the blast. Mojo was still the only dog at the scene. Mojo then had to work in horrendous conditions searching for secondary devices, so as to promote and inspire a degree of confidence to the other emergency services that the area was clear of any further devices. Phil recalls that Mojo was somehow different, he could tell that he didn’t want to be there and just wasn’t himself. Despite this he worked on, clearing the area so that the other units could be released. Eventually Phil and Mojo were joined by other dog teams and they searched the whole stadium. Phil and Mojo continued to work until 7.00 AM the following morning, and even on the way home after having worked so many hours, had to respond to another call for a suspicious device. Mojo and his handler had to work through scenes of chaos, death and destruction. It sounds like an exaggeration, but that is exactly what they had to do. Their role was to make others safe, not just the public, but also the responding emergency services. They actively searched for any secondary devices or devices that had failed to detonate in order to keep everyone else safe. Putting themselves at risk in the process. Mojo worked tirelessly to keep others safe in the aftermath of this terrorist atrocity, a true hero.
Video source: YouTube / #Crufts2018