Manchester bomber ‘talked of killing in public for years’
Inquiry told how threats were dismissed as bravado – and that MI5 was overstretched
THE Manchester Arena bomber had been saying for years that he wanted to ‘kill people in a public place’ but the threat was dismissed as bravado, the inquiry into the tragedy heard yesterday.
Salman Abedi’s sickening threats emerged in a prison officer’s account of the fanatic’s visits to jailed terrorist fixer Abdalraouf Abdallah.
Identified only as PO1, the officer said Abdallah told him that Abedi’s friends and family never believed he would go through with it. Abedi murdered 22 people when he blew himself up at an Ariana Grande concert in May 2017.
During Abdallah’s revelations last December about the would-be bomber’s visits, he claimed he was shocked to learn that Abedi was ‘one of his boys.’
PO1 said: ‘Abs said that for years the lad (Abedi) had said about killing people in a public space but all this lad’s friends and family had shrugged it off as a bit of bravado as it had been said that often.’
Messages on Abdallah’s mobile phone which spoke about martyrdom with a contact known as Salman were also discovered during the fixer’s prosecution in 2014. Only after the Arena attack did police realise it was Abedi.
Abdallah has always insisted he had nothing to do with the 2017 bombing and told the public inquiry in November, a week before the prison admissions, that he had no idea of Abedi’s plan.
The revelation emerged as a ‘gist’ of ten days of secret evidence, held in closed sessions because of national security concerns, was read to the inquiry.
It revealed how MI5 officers were ‘over-stretched’ in the North West at the time of the atrocity with concerns raised that ‘something could get through’.
The increased workload was a consequence of the declaration by terror group Islamic State of its caliphate in June 2014. The inquiry was told evidence that an MI5 officer, first given the task of examining intelligence relating to 22year-old Abedi before the May 2017 attack, admitted it could have indicated activity ‘of pressing national security concern’.
A second piece of ‘highly relevant’ intelligence, also dismissed by MI5, failed to be passed on to police which meant a chance to stop the bomber when he left the UK for Libya was potentially missed, one senior MI5 officer said.
The significance of both pieces of intelligence was only realised with hindsight after the attack, the inquiry was told.
Families of the victims said they were ‘appalled’ to learn MI5’s resources had been overstretched in the months before the killings.
In a statement, their lawyers said: ‘To hear that concerns had apparently been raised with superiors regarding the triaging of intelligence, including worries that something could get through due to the volumes of documents being considered, is difficult to swallow. This is profoundly concerning. Anti-terrorism work should never be under-resourced.’
MI5’s director general of counter-terrorism, known only as witness J, has said he was ‘not aware of any examples of resources having an impact on any decisions or judgments relating to Salman Abedi’. He also denied that the intelligence dismissed by MI5 amounted to a national security risk.
Abedi was investigated as a ‘subject of interest’ in 2014. His case was closed, but the inquiry heard that, in May 2015, an MI5 officer
‘Profoundly concerning’
wrote to police to say they were considering reopening a ‘lead’ on Abedi. This, the inquiry heard, never happened.
The last day of the 17-month hearing ended yesterday with a reading of the victims’ names and a minute’s silence.
The inquiry has sat for 194 days and called 267 witnesses.
The first report by chairman Sir John Saunders, which detailed security failings, was published last June. Separate reports on the emergency response and the intelligence investigation are expected later this year.