YOU COWARD
Manchester bomber’s brother refuses to leave cell to hear emotional testimonies from bereaved relatives
THE brother of the Manchester Arena bomber refused yesterday to face the tearful relatives of those he murdered as they spoke for the first time of their enduring grief.
A judge told families of the 22 innocent men, women and children who died that he was powerless to force Hashem Abedi, now 23, to leave his cell at the Old Bailey to hear their powerful testimony.
But Mr Justice Jeremy Baker assured them that their moving descriptions of loss, heartbreak and ‘all-consuming grief’ would be served on the home-grown terrorist before he was taken back to prison.
At the start of a two- day sentencing hearing yesterday, it emerged that Hashem Abedi, who was convicted of helping older brother Salman, 22, build his suicide bomb, cannot receive a whole life tariff – meaning he would never be freed – because he was under 21 when he helped plot the atrocity in May 2017. The law forbids juveniles under 21 from being jailed for life without any possibility of parole.
Instead the judge will set a minimum term that Hashem must serve when he is sentenced today. Yesterday, Figen Murray, whose son, Martyn Hett, 29, died revealed she is unable to go to sleep before 10.31pm – the exact time Salman Abedi detonated his shrapnel-filled backpack – because she felt guilty that she had been ‘fast asleep’ when her son was killed.
She said: ‘I still cannot reconcile that I was fast asleep while my son lay dead on the floor, and I am ashamed about that.’
Mother Caroline Curry, 49, sobbed as she revealed how her ‘precious’ son Liam, 19, had been ‘snatched away’ in the bomb attack at the end of a concert by the American singer Ariana Grande. Many of the audience were youngsters.
Holding up a photograph of Liam and addressing Hashem Abedi directly, even though he was not in the dock, she told him: ‘ You took from me something more precious than gold, a beautiful boy, inside and out.
‘I want you to look at Liam and remember the beautiful boy that was snatched away.
‘Your actions have caused this heartbreak. I feel cheated. You took his future, my future, my family’s future. All we have now is heartbreak and dreams of “what if?”.’
Mrs Curry, who tragically lost her husband, Andrew, 49, following a long battle with cancer just weeks before the atrocity, said her son ‘became a man overnight’ after his father’s death. She revealed how their ashes now sit side by side at her home in South Shields near Newcastle upon Tyne.
‘There are not enough words in the world to describe the pain I feel,’ Mrs Curry added. ‘There is no relief. Life now is not a life, it is an existence.’
Liam died alongside his girlfriend Chloe Rutherford, 17, whose mother also described how her ‘heart snapped’ after she was told about the explosion.
Wiping away tears, and supported in court by crutches, Lisa Rutherford, 49, told the court there was ‘always that empty chair where she [Chloe] should be.’ She added: ‘We are lost. Somehow we are expected to get through life without her, without our baby girl, and it just feels impossible.’
The parents of Kelly Brewster, 32, spoke of their devastation at never being able to take her shop certain ping for a wedding dress or walk her down the aisle.
However, Harriet Taylor, 27, whose mother, Jane Tweddle, 51, died said her family was determined not to ‘let evil win.’
‘I feel it would be wrong to give people the satisfaction of knowing what they have put us through,’ she said.
‘I would rather tell you how we have harnessed the strength to come together as a family.
The judge also heard from many survivors, who were left with terrible injuries and needing months of surgery and rehabilitation after being struck by nuts and bolts from the bomb.
Although Hashem Abedi was 2,000 miles away in Libya when his older brother detonated the bomb, a jury found him guilty of the murder of the 22 victims, the attempted murder of survivors and a further charge of conspiracy to cause explosions following a trial in March.
They agreed with prosecutors that Hashem, who had studied electronics at college, was in on the plot from the start and had stood ‘shoulder to shoulder’ in helping Salman buy chemicals and build the deadly home-made device.
Four family members spoke directly to the court, while the statements of another nine were read by barristers.
The rest had asked that their statements be considered privately by the judge. Another 16 statements were read on behalf of survivors and more will be read today.
‘A beautiful boy that was snatched away’ ‘Empty chair where she should be’