Stress of seeing casualties made woman seek solace in the Amazon

‘I’m not the same person I used to be and it caused the breakdown of my 10-year relationship’

A WOMAN caught up in the Manchester Arena bombing went to live with Amazonian tribes in Peru for two months to get away from the mental scars of the attack, the Old Bailey heard.

Vanessa Morgan told how she was with her friend Lesley Callander, whose 18-year-old daughter, Georgina, died in the attack.

The pair were waiting in a nearby hotel foyer when the bomb was detonated. They soon witnessed “young girls in shock and distress running into the hotel”.

Ms Morgan said she “struggled immensely” in the months after the attack and suffered with anxiety and traumatising flashbacks.

“I became hypersensitive at being outside in public places, I feel every time I would be assessing everything and not concentrating on why I was outside. It caused me to not want to leave my home and go outside – I was never like this before,” she said.

The stress became too much and she eventually sold her family home and left Manchester. Ms Morgan then went to live with Amazonian tribes in Peru for two months. “This greatly helped me,” she said, “but I’m not the same person I used to be and it caused the breakdown of my 10-year relationship.”

The court had also heard victim impact statements from other survivors.

Steve Milward, who was left with a cut lip from the shrapnel of the blast, said he has since suffered from flashbacks and is suspicious of anyone he sees wearing a backpack in public. In a statement read out by the prosecutor, Mr Milward said he rushed to help his two daughters as soon as the bomb went off.

“I still feel immense guilt for going to my daughters instead of going to help others in the foyer,” he said. “Would they still be alive if I had? I’m still affected by this to this day.”

Describing the impact of the attack, he added: “I became hypersensitive to people wearing backpacks, including Asians and Muslims. I was always wary of them and risk-assessing everything.

“I have a fear of crowded places and a fear [that] terrorists could burst into a theatre or crowded places. I have not been to such places as a result.”

He also recalled an incident in a busy shopping centre where he suddenly had a panic attack due to a loud noise and ran outside, knocking over two elderly women.