Dunblane massacre: Reporting on the tragedy was an experience I will never forget

As a relatively inexperienced 25-year-old reporter, covering such a major story was a daunting prospect, writes Boris Worrall.

Thinking back now triggers so many challenging memories and still sends a shiver down my spine.

It was an experience that I will never forget.

In an age before the internet and social media was established, news travelled far more slowly than it does today.

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I remember being told to get up to Scotland, grabbing some things and jumping into the car of photographer Tim Sturgess.

We listened to the radio on the way as the true horror of what had happened slowly began to unfold. In those days, I'm not even sure we had a mobile phone. When we arrived in Dunblane the place was awash with journalists and television crews.

The police set up a briefing room in a hall packed with maybe 100 or 150 of us.

In those days, this was the only real way of getting accurate information.

Details were sketchy and slow to emerge, so we braved the streets trying to find out what we could – occasionally facing abuse from angry locals who were upset at what they saw as callous intrusion.

It was a frantic, frenzied and at times intimidating few hours as we all tried to establish the facts, filing copy on the hoof and piecing together whatever details we could.

Later that evening the police briefing set out the enormity of what had happened and confirmed many of the facts about Hamilton that we had picked up.

I vividly remember Kate Adie asking a question.

I also remember swapping information with two agency reporters who were standing next to me.

I had never experienced anything like it – nor would I again during my eight years in journalism.

No journalist enjoys approaching the bereaved and, like many colleagues over the years, I have struggled with it. But it is a necessary and established part of the job and for some relatives it provides a genuine opportunity to pay tribute to those they love and have lost.

Dunblane was no different. So when we discovered that a family who had lost a child had recently moved up from the Midlands, we identified the address.

I remember seeing a child's swing in the garden as I approached.

It was one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life.

The grandparents did actually give a brief response.

So in that sense, my job was done.

Today, as a father myself, I think about how hard that must have been.

And I reflect on the person I was then, and the person I am now.

And, of course, the lives that were so tragically taken away on that terrible day.