The catalogue of Arena security errors that failed the 22 -as families of the victims call for corporate manslaughter charges

Date20 June 2021
Published date20 June 2021
The words of a barrister at the public inquiry into the terrible loss of life at Manchester Arena four years ago.

The chairman of the ongoing inquiry, Lives were lost in Manchester Arena bomb attack after transport police went for a kebab and a steward missed the chance to stop the bomber, damning report finds, agreed, but found there were 'serious shortcomings in the security provided by those organisations which had responsibility for it, and also failings and mistakes by some individuals'.

Lawyers for the bereaved families now say 'prosecutions should be commenced without further delay' -with potential charges including corporate manslaughter.

Chairman Sir John Saunders said he had not looked to blame anyone.

But, he said, where he considered individuals had 'fallen below a proper standard in carrying out their important roles in protecting concertgoers', he was duty-bound to say so.

"There will be those who consider that I have been overcritical in reaching the conclusions that I have," Sir John told beavered families in court after the publication of the report into security arrangements at the Arena.

"They will suggest that I have used hindsight in reaching my decisions and have made scapegoats of some individuals.

"Others may consider that I have not been critical enough. In reaching my conclusions, I have considered all of the evidence. There are not many people who, like me, have heard it all.

"Some will say that if you look at any incident such as this in the degree of detail that I have, you will inevitably find things that have gone wrong. That may be so, but when you are considering an event which has caused as much harm and suffering as this attack, it is only right that the circumstances should be scrutinised with the greatest care."

The report highlighted a number of missed opportunities. Sir John said there were a number of opportunities to identify hate-filled suicide bomber Salman Abedi’s activities as being suspicious on the night, before he detonated his bomb.

But he went on: "What I cannot say with any certainty is what would have happened if those opportunities had not been missed. Salman Abedi might have been deterred from committing this outrage or might have done the same thing elsewhere.

"He might have detonated his bomb earlier in a different location, in or close to the City Room.

And in what might be considered Sir John's most chilling comment, he said: "Everybody concerned with security at the Arena should have been doing their job in the knowledge that a terrorist attack might occur on that night. They weren’t.

"No one believed it could happen to them."

Sir John stressed the 'responsibility' for the attack lay firmly with Abedi and his brother Hashem, now serving a life sentence for murder.

But he said more needed to be done to provide greater protection for members of the public everywhere from terror attacks.

"There remains a risk of further attacks which requires changes to be made without delay," he said in the report.

In submissions made in January, barristers representing bereaved families said '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'.

Lives, they said, could have been saved. The report supports their claims.

Elkan Abrahamson, Director and Head of Major Inquiries at North West law firm Broudie Jackson Canter, which represents a number of bereaved families, said the report amounted to a 'devastating narrative, setting out multiple failures and missed opportunities by a number of organisations'.

He said: "At the start of these proceedings, the prosecuting authorities stated that they would keep the evidence against relevant organisations under review. Four years on from the bombing outrage, and with publication of the report, prosecutions should be commenced without further delay.

"Potential charges include corporate manslaughter and offences under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974."

Here, the Manchester Evening News takes an in-depth look at all aspects of the damming report.

Abedi should have been identified as a 'threat' and challenged before he murdered 22 people in the attack on May 22, 2017, said the report.

The chairman said 'disruptive intervention' should have been taken against him -and lives could have been saved as a result.

He found there were a number of missed opportunities to stop Abedi -or minimise the dreadful outcome of his murderous attack -and said SMG, the owners of the Arena, the stewarding...

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