Manchester Arena Inquiry: Police ‘let people down’ on night of bomb

But senior officer says he support BTP’s risk assessment for the event

A senior British Transport (BTP) police officer has accepted that the force “let the public down” on the night of the Manchester Arena bombing. 

Twenty-two people were killed and hundreds more were injured on 22 May 2017 when suicide bomber Salman Abedi detonated his homemade bomb in the foyer of the arena following an Ariande Grande concert.

Assistant chief constable Sean O'Callaghan, who did not work for the BTP at the time of the attack, made the admission as a witness in the inquiry into the attack.

After Paul Greaney QC, counsel to the inquiry, asked him whether the BTP “let the public down in their policing” that night, Mr O’Callaghan replied: "The attack that happened that night, certainly happened on our watch, yes.”

He added that it was the force’s responsibility to police the arena and admitted that officers were “not there” in the foyer at the time of the explosion.

This area, known as the City Room, was where Abedi, detonated his homemade bomb at the end of the concert.

Although Mr O’Callaghan admitted his force had let people down, he expressed his support for the BTP’s risk assessment, which judged the risk of an attack or violence as “low”.

"In relation to the information available I understand why that assessment was made,” he said, referring to the fact that no attacks had previously been made on the arena and that there was no special intelligence about a potential attack.

However, Mr Greaney said the UK’s terror threat at the time was “severe”, which indicated that an attack was “highly likely”.

Mr O’Callaghan replied by saying that the threat had been at the same level for the previous 33 months.

Mr Greaney then gave examples of issues which it “might be concluded went wrong”, including only having four officers on duty and having no officer in the City Room at the end of the gig.

Additional reporting by Press Association