British transport police threaten attack or violence at dusk (Anthony Devlin/PA)
A senior police official agreed that he had “let the public down,” he heard the investigation into the Manchester Arena bombing.
But Deputy Chief of Police Sean O’Callaghan of the British Transport Police (BTP) said he agreed with the btp’s overall assessment of an attack or violence on the night of Ariana Grande’s concert as “weak. “
O’Callaghan, who was not a member of the BTP at the time of the attack, said: “To the extent that the data is available, I understand why this evaluation was conducted. “
Manchester-born suicide bomber Salman Abedi detonated his homemade bomb backpack in the sand lobby, known as the City Room, at the end of the concert, killing 22 spectators and injuring many more on May 22, 2017.
Salman Abedi detonated the bomb (Greater Manchester Police)
The investigation heard the deployment of BTP at night, which consists of a BTP workplace that was still on parole and shortly 8 months after taking the workplace and 3 PCSO, was based on an assessment of the safety and safety hazards associated with the crowd and young people. people who separated from the accompaniment. Adults.
The “profile” of the crowd of 14,000 is that of teenage women and their parents without worrying about gang violence and crowd problems.
Paul Greaney QC, an investigative lawyer, said: “But, of course, there is a possible source of violence, which is a hostile actor. A terrorist. “
O’Callaghan said there had been no attack in the arena, no terrorist attack on entertainment venues in the UK at the time and no express data on a possible terrorist attack.
But Mr Greaney under pressure that the overall terrorist risk to the UK is “serious,” that is, a “very likely” attack. And he highlighted the deadly attacks in Paris at Bataclan’s concert hall in Paris and the Stade de France in November 2015 and an attempted attack at an outdoor concert in Germany last year.
Manchester Arena investigation examines cases before and after attack (Peter Byrne/PA)
O’Callaghan said the risk point had been “severe” in the last two years and nine months and at the same time as at Ariana Grande’s last concert in 2015.
He said the suicide bombing in the UK took place 12 years ago.
He added: “Terrorism is on the minds of the police officers of all the police officers in the country and of each and every officer in the structure who deal with their affairs, whether on duty or leave.
“I don’t think for a minute that attention wasn’t on the officers’ minds. “
Mr. Greaney indexed disorders that “could be conclusive that went wrong” on the night of the attack. These included having 4 service officers, the PC and his PCSO colleague taking a two-hour lunch break, without a service officer, when Abedi made his “final approach” to take a position in the city corridor by the end of the concert.
The attack that night occurred under our supervision Sean O’Callaghan, British Transport Police.
And there was no policeman in the room for the end of the concert as he dictated through the police sergeant’s orders.
Mr Greaney continued: “I will ask you a direct question, namely that on 22 May 2017, before the attack, BTP defrauded the public in its police work in the City Room?”
The witness replied: “The attack that occurred that night occurred under our watch, yes.
“It is our duty to monitor this arena and this attack took position when we were tracking it and there were police deployed or planned to be deployed at the site of the attack and they were not there.
“So, in that term, yes. “
The investigation focuses on cases before and after the attack.
He goes on.