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Barristers for victim’s families speak at Manchester Arena Inquiry

January 26, 2021

FEATURED

The barristers representing the families of those tragically killed in the Manchester Arena bombings have recently spoken at the Manchester Arena Inquiry.

At 10:31 on 22 May 2017, suicide bomber Salman Abedi, 22, detonated a rucksack bomb in one of the foyers of Manchester Arena as it filled with bystanders leaving an Ariana Grande concert – the blast took the lives of 22 innocent people and injured hundreds.

Manchester Arena Bombing Inquiry

The seventh part of the public inquiry – which resumed virtually on 25 January 2021 – provided closing statements relating to evidence about Manchester Arena as well as the security arrangements and protocol in place when the attack occurred.

The inquiry heard from Duncan Atkinson QC, who was speaking on behalf of the families of Courtney Boyle, Olivia Campbell-Hardy, Liam Curry, Chloe Rutherford, Michelle Kiss and Jane Tweddle as the circumstances which led to their deaths were further investigated.

The inquiry similarly heard from Pete Weatherby QC – who represented the families of Saffie-Rose Roussos, Alison Howe, Lisa Lees, Georgina Callander, Olivia Campbell-Hardy, Philip Tron and Sorrell Leczkowski – as well as John Cooper QC, for the families of John Atkinson, Kelly Brewster, Georgina Callander, Wendy Fawell, Megan Hurley, Nell Jones, Martyn Hett, Lisa Lees, Angelica Kliss, Marcin Kliss, Eilidh MacLeod and Elaine McIver.

“A failure to anticipate and address a risk that should have been obvious”

Mr Atkinson said (as quoted by Manchester Evening News): “What we submit the evidence has clearly shown is that this was the consequence of significant serious, unacceptable and unjustifiable failures, principally by BTP, SMG, SMG facilities management and Showsec, in the security arrangements and practices within and outside the Manchester Arena.

“The evidence has shown a security operation that was under-resourced, malco-ordinated and insufficiently focused on counter-terrorism and especially the threat from person borne improvised explosive devices.

“This made the Arena an attractive target for terrorists and led to a series of missed opportunities to prevent, deter, detect and/or mitigate the attack.

“In short, we submit the evidence shows the attack to have been, at least in significant part, the result of a failure to anticipate and address a risk that should have been obvious, rather than a failure that only hindsight reveals.”

Mr Atkinson told Sir John Saunders, Chair of the Inquiry: “We submit that the inquiry can now conclude on the evidence that there were serious failures to keep their loved ones safe and that you can make recommendations so that the public are not left similarly unprotected in future.”

“This is a matter of passing the buck, or saving a buck.”

Mr Cooper remarked: “The families submit that at the close of evidence the inescapable truth is that there was a failure of security at the Arena, singularly and cumulatively which enabled the terrorist Salman Abedi to succeed in his murderous activities.

“Whilst it is a matter for this Inquiry to resolve whether he could have been prevented from detonating his bomb in the City Room, it is, without doubt, upon the evidence, clear that but for the failures of multiple parties, responsible for security at the Arena, some lives could have been saved.

“These failures were not, on the whole, slight or marginal. They were fundamental and chronic.

“There may be multiple reasons for this, ignorance, passivity, poor training, complacency, turning a wilful blind eye, dereliction of duty, lack of funding, lack of communication, lack of leadership, a failure of systems, a failure of equipment, a failure to take responsibility and the overriding drive to penny pinch, a virulent and ultimately fatal cocktail.”

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