Veteran news broadcaster John Simpson has spoken for the first time of the moment he sought solace from a Chelsea vicar as he struggled with the psychology fallout from a devastating bomb attack in Iraq.

Simpson was covering the Iraq war in 2003 when he and his TV crew of four people were caught up in a “friendly fire” attack by the US air force. Simpson, now 82, was peppered with shrapnel across his face and body after a 1,000lb missile from a F-15 fighter jet exploded near his team. Simpson’s interpreter – a 24-year-old Iraqi called Kamran – was horrifically injured in the blast and died instantly.

Other members of the team were also injured and Simpson only escaped a potentially devastating back injury, thanks to his flak jacket. To this day, he still has a large piece of shrapnel stuck in his left hip, which gives him a slight limp. It was the psychological damage, however, that affected him most.

In a moving moment during a talk at the inaugural Chelsea Book Festival at Chelsea Old Church (27th September), he spoke of the incident and how lucky he was to survive. He then suddenly said: “I have never told anyone this before, or at least talked in public about it…” and proceeded to reveal that the post-trauma led him to seek help from the then vicar of Chelsea Old Church – Peter Elvy.

Simpson revealed: ‘We all had what you might think of as a miraculous escape. All of us were covered with shrapnel. I had 50 bits – only little bits in my face, and then this really large bit in my leg, and a monster great bit that hit the flak jacket over my spine. We’d all lost the hearing of the ear nearest the blast. The one chap who died was our young Muslim translator –a sweet natured little kid. Oh God. And he only was there because he saw me on television and he thought that I could lead him to some adventures.

‘Well, we did have some adventures, but not in the end, a happy one. And I couldn’t work out in my mind why my life – a useless old man of 60 or something – should be spared, or the lives of my crew should be spared, yet the life of my translator should be taken away.

‘It bothered me greatly and I couldn’t sleep at night for thinking about it. I suppose it’s a sort of variant of survivor’s guilt, isn’t it? And in the end, I said to Peter Elvy, who was the vicar, won’t you please just give me half an hour of your time and tell me what you think. I went to see him and now – stupidly – I can’t even remember what he said!

‘It was just, you know, that he listened. I think that was perhaps the big thing, that I talked and he listened, and he thought about it carefully. I think he basically said, these things happen, and you’ve just got to get used to it. But he said it in a much more priestly way – and no doubt with some quotations and stuff. But whatever it was he said, it took it away from me. It took that sense of guilt away from me.

‘I’ve been to Kamran’s grave in northern Iraq three times now and I never forget him. I always go and see the family and I’m proud to say that the BBC looked after the family very, very well, which they should have, of course, but you know, it doesn’t always happen.’

During the talk, which was a sell-out with around 70 guests, Simpson also talked about his formidable 60 year career at the BBC, relaying tales of interviewing “the quite mad” Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in Paris, during which the late despotic Libyan leader broke wind repeatedly, and of meeting a young Vladimir Putin.

Read Citizen Fame with John Simpson here