Manchester Arena Inquiry: No sign of Abedi's extremism at school, teacher says

The Manchester Arena bomber's former head teacher has told an inquiry there was no sign of his extremism while he was at school.

Twenty-two people were killed when Salman Abedi detonated a bomb in the venue's foyer on 22 May 2017.

Abedi studied at Burnage Academy for Boys in Manchester for about 18 months between 2009 and 2011.

The public inquiry into the attack heard he was "aggressive and rude" to teachers and was suspended from school.

Former head teacher Ian Fenn said there was "no indication" from school staff that Abedi or his family had extreme or radical views.

"He never came across as somebody who was opinionated, who was driven, that had an agenda. He was a typically lacklustre child who drifted around," he told the hearing.

The inquiry heard that Abedi's school record was a "catalogue of misdemeanours, criminality and disengagement".

Mr Fenn said on one occasion Abedi swore at one of his colleagues after being told to report to a senior member of staff.

He was also temporarily excluded from school for stealing a mobile phone.

"This was the first time I'd used the CCTV [at school] and I caught him. A prefect had put a phone down on the reception table and he'd just gone past and swiped it and walked off with it," Mr Fenn said.

The inquiry heard Abedi was also suspended for a day for setting off fireworks outside school.

"It was not good behaviour but it was not standout behaviour," Mr Fenn said.

"You don't think that somebody who is involved in that sort of minor criminality is somebody who is going to go on to do what he did."

The inquiry was told Abedi had average academic success but was "not really engaged or interested" in his studies.

The UK's top counter-terrorism police officer also told the hearing that although improvements had been made since the Manchester bombing, authorities would not be able to stop all future attacks.

"The horror of this makes you look very hard at hopefully preventing it ever happening again," Met Police Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu said.

Apologising to the victims' families who were in court, he said: "I'm going to be very blunt about this. We won't stop them happening again, they will happen again.

"We have to try and minimise or reduce the risk and that means constantly trying to have a system that looks at improvement no matter how busy we are."

Mr Basu said the results of a joint police and MI5 review into the 2017 terrorist attacks in the UK, including in Manchester, were "humbling".

The review had 104 recommendations, and Mr Basu said four were outstanding and still actively being worked on.

The inquiry heard that since the terror attacks in 2017, MI5 and counter-terrorism police have greatly improved the way they work together.

"We're very close but we need to be closer still," Mr Basu said.

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