Arena blast inquiries ‘to be held in secret’

RELATIVES of the Manchester Arena bombing victims – and survivors – reacted with anger last night after it was announced they would be barred from hearing key inquiry evidence.

Coroner Sir John Saunders yesterday granted an application by Home Secretary Priti Patel to exclude sensitive material about suicide bomber Salman Abedi, 22, on the grounds of national security.

It means Sir John is likely to convert the inquests into a public inquiry, so that he can consider information in secret.

It will be the first time since 9/11 that an inquiry into a terrorist attack has been heard partly behind closed doors and means families may never fully know why MI5 failed to stop the atrocity which killed 22 men, women and children, in May 2017.

Last night Robby Potter, 49, who was seriously injured when Abedi detonated his backpack bomb at the end of the Ariana Grande concert, said: ‘You would think the ones who lost lives and were injured would have the right to know (what happened). It stinks.’

Sir John said he had upheld the Public Interest Immunity applications made by Miss Patel and Counter Terrorism Police North West because he was satisfied that making the information public ‘would assist terrorists in carrying out the sort of atrocities committed in Manchester and would make it less likely that the Security Service and CT Police would be able to prevent them’.

It is thought that discussions on whether the inquests will be converted into a public inquiry will be raised at a pre-inquests hearing on October 7.

John Cooper, QC for the families of 11 victims, said the secrecy application had come from ‘the very people who could potentially be severely criticised’.

But a Home Office spokesman said: ‘It is vital that those who survived or lost loved ones in the Manchester Arena attack get the answers they need, and that we learn the lessons whatever they may be. That is why it is right that an inquest is being conducted, and any decision to claim Public Interest Immunity is only taken when there is a risk of undermining our national security.’

‘Ones who were hurt have a right to know’