‘It hits you in the chest’– families grieve as terrorist dodges court
● Parents of Barra schoolgirl victim among those who address Old Bailey
Grief-stricken relatives of the Manchester Arena bomb victims have described the devastating void caused by the atrocity, repeating their demand for answers.
Parents of those killed in the blast on 22 May, 2017, took to the witness box at the Old Bailey yesterday during the start of a two-day sentencing hearing, but Hashem Abedi, younger brother of suicide bomber Salman Abedi, refused to attend.
Among the bombing victims was 14-year-old Eilidh Macleod, from Barra in the Outer Hebrides.
Her parents yesterday delivered an emotional statement in court, describing Eilidh as a popular friend who was “wise, well beyond her years”.
They said: “She loved her life and everything in it – and it wasn’t hard to love her right back.
“Every day it’s been a struggle for us to maintain our dignity – trying to put one foot in front of the other is the hardest thing in our lives.
“We still have to stop ourselves calling out her name for our dinner, that will never stop. Anger, fear, resentment and heartbreak is something we all have to live with.
“No parent who ever takes their child to a concert should ever have to take them home to bury them.
“We still have some good days, then we have some really bad days. It comes from absolutely nowhere and hits you in the chest.”
The judge, Mr Justice Jeremy Baker, said 23-year-old Abedi had been brought to the court building from prison, but that he was powerless to drag him into the courtroom.
It was left to tearful family members of the 22 killed and dozens injured in the blast to describe how the Abedi brothers’ actions had affected their lives.
Lisa Rutherford, mother of 17-year-old Chloe Rutherford, who died in the blast, said: “As a family we need answers – we are destroyed.”
Ms Rutherford said her “heart snapped” when she received a telephone call with the news.
Wiping away tears, she said: “We are lost, we are devastated and we feel an overwhelming loss.”
Caroline Curry held up a photograph of her son Liam, 19, who died with his girlfriend Chloe, when she appeared to address some of her comments to the absent Abedi.
She said: “You took from me something more precious than gold, a beautiful boy, inside and out.”
Abedi was found guilty by a jury in March of 22 counts of murder, attempted murder and plotting to cause an explosion likely to endanger life.
The Old Bailey heard that the Islamic State-inspired jihadi helped his brother order, collect and store materials needed for the plot, before the latter blew himself up as thousands of men, women and children left an Ariana Grande concert.
The defendant, who travelled to Libya the month before the bombing, was arrested hours after the attack and was extradited back to Britain last summer. A public inquiry into the bombing is scheduled to start next month.