Intel held on Manchester Arena bomber years before attack

An inquiry into the Manchester Arena attack has heard that intelligence that linked the bomber to another suspected terrorist was uncovered by detectives three years before the 2017 incident.

Detectives found the name, photo and phone number of Salman Abedi during an investigation into Abdalraouf Abdallah in 2014. About 1,300 text messages were exchanged between the two in November 2014. The text messages were only traced back to Abedi after he killed 22 people and injured hundreds more when he detonated a suicide vest at the end of an Ariana Grande concert on 22 May 2017.

Frank Morris, a former senior investigating officer at North West Counter Terrorism Policing who found the text messages, told the inquiry into the bombing that the intelligence should have been passed on for ‘development’ but was not.

The inquiry has previously heard intelligence was received by MI5 about Abedi in the months before the bombing but was assessed at the time to relate to possibly non-terrorist criminality. The inquiry has been told that, in retrospect, this intelligence was highly relevant to the planned attack.

Morris said that more should have been done to establish Abedi’s identity and that ‘modest policing efforts’ would have identified who ‘Salman’ was and officers could have referred him to the Prevent programme for deradicalisation or for further investigation.