‘Homeless hero’ denies stealing from blast casualties
“HOMELESS hero” Chris Parker said, “I have done nothing. Absolutely nothing”, after he was accused in court of stealing from two people injured in the Manchester Arena bombing
Parker, 33, is alleged to have stolen a purse and its contents belonging to Pauline Healey, the grandmother of 14-year-old Sorrell Leczkowski, from Leeds, who was hoping to study in New York and become an architect but was killed in the attack on May 22.
He is also said to have taken the mobile phone of a teenage girl who cannot be named for legal reasons.
The defendant made his remarks as he was led from the dock after entering formal notguilty pleas at Manchester Magistrates’ Court to the charges of theft.
Following the attack, rough sleeper Parker received global acclaim after he described witnessing the effects of the blast and tending to the injured.
Speaking at the time, he said: “It knocked me to the floor and then I got up and, instead of running away, my gut instinct was to run back and try and help.
“There was people lying on the floor everywhere.”
He told how he had wrapped an injured girl in a T-shirt and cradled a dying woman in his arms in the aftermath of suicide bomber Salman Abedi killing himself and 22 others.
Yesterday, Ben Southam, prosecuting, said it was alleged that Parker took Mrs Healey’s purse, containing bank cards, from a handbag as she lay stricken on the ground, and also stole another victim’s phone.
He added it was clear the defendant provided “some limited assistance” to people injured at the entrance to the venue’s foyer but it was the Crown’s case that he “equally” took the opportunity to commit the thefts in the immediate aftermath of the atrocity.
District Judge John Temperley said the case was too serious to be dealt with within his jurisdiction and must be heard in a Crown court.
Parker, who gave the court an address in Woodlands Road, Crumpsall, Manchester, was remanded in custody until his next hearing at Manchester Crown Court on September 13.