Irshadgul News report,
A public inquiry published on Thursday 2 March into the May 2017 atrocity found that it could have been prevented if MI5 had acted more quickly on intelligence received months earlier.
Two pieces of information about suicide bomber Salman Abidi were assessed by the security service at the time as not having links to terrorism – this was a “missed opportunity” to prevent the terrorist attack, which killed 22 people and injured hundreds. were injured.
The parents of Chloe Rutherford, 17, and Liam Curry, 19, pulled up the security service over their inaction.
READ MORE: Looking back: Tragedy at Manchester Arena rocks the North East
Chloe and Liam, a teenage couple from South Shields, were among 22 people to die in the attack, which also killed Philip Troon, 32, and Courtney Boyle, 19, both from Gateshead.
Ms Currie said: “Those who played any part in the murder of our children will never be pardoned.
“From top to bottom, MI5 to the attacker’s accomplices, we will always believe that you all played a part in the murder of our children.”
Several years before the attack, the security service assessed information about the attacker, Salman Abidi, prior to the attack.
In March 2014, Abedi became the subject of a phone contact SOI for MI5 with another SOI, but his case was closed after four months when he was deemed “low risk”.
He was also identified as having direct or indirect contacts of suspected extremists on six occasions from December 2013 to April 2017.
MI5 recognized that this information was not related to terrorism.
Read more: Manchester Arena bombing ‘could have been prevented’, inquiry finds
But the inquiry chairman Sir John Saunders said – having heard from MI5 witnesses at the hearing into the bombing, which killed 22 people and injured hundreds – he believed did not present an “accurate picture”.
The official acknowledged that he considered a piece of intelligence a potentially pressing national security concern, but did not discuss it directly with aides and did not write a report the same day.
In his 207-page report, Sir John said: “The delay in providing the report resulted in a lost opportunity to conduct a potentially important investigative action.
“Based on everything the Security Service knew or should have known, I am satisfied that such an investigation would have been a proportionate and justifiable step to take action. It should have been so.
He said that if the intelligence had been followed up quickly it could have followed 22-year-old Abedi to a parked Nissan Micra where he had stored the explosives, and which he later assembled. Moved to rented city center flat.
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The chairman said that Abedi could also have been stopped at Manchester airport upon his return from Libya four days before the attack.
Following Thursday’s publication of the report, bereaved families said they hoped “lessons would be learnt”.
The last two reports of the terrorist attack were released by Sir John.
The first was in June 2021 and highlighted a string of “missed opportunities” at the Arena venue, before he walked into the City Room foyer and detonated his shrapnel-filled device, identifying Abedi as a threat.
Sir John’s second report last November sharply criticized the emergency services response to the bombing.
He said 28-year-old care worker John Atkinson might have survived but for failures in the night, while there was a “remote possibility” that Saffie-Rose Rousseau could have lived with different treatment and care.
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Following the publication of his final report, Sir John said: “I can only hope that we achieve something with our efforts.
“It will only happen if those on the sidelines of this inquiry can join the will of those who have taken part in it to make things better.
“Some of the changes that are inevitably needed will require money which is in short supply, but protecting the lives of the people of this country must be a high priority for any government.”