South Shields parents 'can't forgive' over Manchester Arena attack

The parents of a teenage couple killed in the Manchester Arena bomb attack say "forgiveness will never be an option".

Liam Curry, 19, and Chloe Rutherford, 17, of South Shields, were among 22 killed at the 2017 Ariana Grande show.

On Thursday an inquiry found MI5 missed a significant chance to take action that might have prevented the attack.

Liam's mother Caroline Curry said MI5 had played a part in the "murder of our children". MI5 said it was "profoundly sorry" it did not prevent the attack.

In his 207-page report chairman Sir John Saunders said the intelligence could have led to suicide bomber Salman Abedi being followed to a car where he stored his explosives.

He added that if MI5 had acted on information Abedi also could have been stopped at Manchester Airport on his return from Libya four days before the attack.

Twenty-two people were killed in the bombing on 22 May 2017 and hundreds injured.

Following the publication of the report Liam's mother Ms Curry said: "Forgiveness will never be an option for such evil intentions and those that played any part in the murder of our children will never, ever get forgiveness.

"From top to bottom, MI5 to the associates of the attacker, we will always believe you all played a part in the murder of our children."

Ms Curry said the pair's parents had sat through "eight weeks at the Old Bailey and over two years here at the inquiry" and had "read countless statements and listened to hours of evidence".

She said: "We can only hope that one day the whole truth will come out."

"Because we will never believe they were in this alone."

The parents of Chloe and Liam previously described them as "two beautiful, young people with so much love in their hearts" who "wanted to be together forever and now they are".

Ms Curry, who was echoed by Chloe's parents Mark and Lisa Rutherford, said she hoped "lessons really will be learnt this time".

She said: "All we as families have asked for from day one was the truth, acknowledgement of failures and the determination to make sure those failures are fixed so that next time - because there will be a next time - there won't be as many families going through the utter heartbreak we have had to endure for the last five years, nine months, one week and one day."

Ms Curry thanked the "heroes that night" who she said deserved medals, including first responders from the police and members of the public.

Helen Boniface, counsel at Hogan Lovells, a law firm representing some of the families, said: "It's clear that a lack of coordination and communication between the different services and institutions significantly contributed to the failings on the night.

"Such institutional errors should not have occurred, especially since some of these shortcomings were known before the attack."

Following the inquiry's findings MI5 director-general Ken McCallum apologised to the families affected.

"My thoughts are with the families and friends of those killed, and with all those whose lives were changed by this appalling act of terrorism," he said.

He added he "deeply regretted" intelligence that could have been obtained was not.

"Gathering covert intelligence is difficult - but had we managed to seize the slim chance we had, those impacted might not have experienced such appalling loss and trauma," he added.

"I am profoundly sorry that MI5 did not prevent the attack."

Follow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].