Godley took first pictures of Glasgow tragedy

Comic Janey Godley has told how she took the first dramatic pictures that brought home the full scale of yesterday’s Glasgow factory explosion.

Her photographs were splashed across the front page of the city’s evening paper last night, breaking the news to commuters of the tragedy that left eight dead and dozens more injured.

The stand-up lives just yards from the Stockline Plastics, where rescuers are today continuing their search for survivors in the rubble.

She said: “I was sitting in my front room, working on my book, when there was this big explosion. It blew my windows open.

“So I grabbed my digital camera and rushed out and took the first pictures on the scen. I e-mailed them to the Evening Times, and my first press picture made the front page.  

“The picture I took went on the front page of the Evening Times, with my name on it. I only wish it hadn’t taken a tragedy where people died. I hope my next foray into photography will bring happier pictures”

Godley has attracted drama throughout her life, which she is chronicling in her first, non humorous book.Her mother was murdered, her uncle abused her as a child and she spent her life surrounded by heroin junkies.

And at last year’s Edinburgh fringe – where she premiered a play about her eventful life - she talked a suicidal man down from a building’s ledge.

Published: 12 May 2004