Manchester bomber Salman Abedi murdered 22 in suicide attack, coroner rules

By Emma Stanley & Rachael Lazaro

BBC News

The Manchester Arena bomber died in a suicide attack that “murdered 22 innocent victims”, a coroner has ruled.

Salman Abedi, 22, died when he detonated a home-made device in the arena foyer at the end of an Ariana Grande concert in May 2017.

Coroner Sir John Saunders, who also chaired the Manchester Arena Inquiry, concluded Abedi’s death was “suicide while undertaking a terror attack”.

Abedi’s medical cause of death was given as blast injuries.

No hearings were held for the bomber’s inquest, instead the process was conducted as a written exercise.

Sir John was legally obliged to hold an inquest because Abedi had a sudden and violent death. Abedi’s role in the attack was revealed during the long-running public inquiry and the police investigation and prosecution of his brother Hashem, who helped plot the atrocity and is serving a life sentence for his role in the attack.

He concluded Abedi died from “suicide while undertaking a terror attack that murdered 22 innocent victims and injured many others”.

The circumstances of Abedi’s death were recorded as follows: “The deceased died at 10.31pm on May 22 2017 in the City Room of the Manchester Arena in the Victoria Exchange Complex in Manchester.

“The deceased died near to the entrance doors to the Manchester Arena, when he detonated an explosive device that he had made with his brother and carried into the City Room in a backpack as part of a planned terror attack.

“In detonating the device the deceased murdered 22 innocent victims and injured many others.”

Judith Moritz, BBC North of England Correspondent

It may be obvious that Salman Abedi died as a result of suicide but the formality of an inquest was still a necessary part of the legal process.

The Manchester Arena Inquiry heard detailed evidence about each of the 22 people who were murdered when he exploded his bomb.

There was no appetite for Abedi to be afforded the same attention, and the feeling was that it would be a waste of public money to hold a hearing for his inquest.

So this ruling slipped quietly into the email inboxes of families, lawyers and journalists, right at the end of the Inquiry process.

Sir John Saunders could have just returned a short verdict of “suicide” but by choosing to add the line that Abedi died “while undertaking a terror attack that murdered 22 innocent victims and injured many others” he also acknowledged the extent of the bomber’s crimes, and the number of people his actions affected.

Abedi was identified through DNA, fingerprint and dental records and a post-mortem examination showed there was no evidence he had been drinking alcohol or taking drugs on the night of the bombing.

Documents showed Abedi’s DNA had been matched with DNA held by the Home Office following his arrest for shoplifting in 2012.

Some of the 22 victims’ families urged Sir John not to record the cause of death simply as “suicide”, given what he had done.

In legal submissions, lawyers acting for some families said: “To formally record his death as simply ‘suicide’ and shorn of all reference to his murderous attack would fundamentally fail to record the true circumstances of his death and unjustly misrepresent and minimise the true impact of his mode of death.”

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