Inquiry hears MI5 was 'overstretched' when Manchester Arena bomber struck

MI5 was struggling to cope with its workload and so busy it had to farm out work from the North West of England a month before the Manchester Arena bombing, a public inquiry heard.

The MI5 regional station had "limited time" to consider leads and in April 2017 the North West investigative team went into "amber" on its workload dashboard, the hearing was told.

A month later suicide bomber Salman Abedi struck.

Work was given to other teams around the UK as the security services in the North West was "overstretched" at the time.

And the MI5 operation in the region had been "struggling to cope" since a big increase in workload after so-called Islamic State had declared a caliphate in Syria in 2014.

One MI5 operative had warned his bosses he was worried, "something could potentially get through" due to the amount of intelligence they had to assess.

The information was made public to the inquiry on Tuesday, as a "gist" of evidence heard during hearings held behind closed doors with only the inquiry chairman, select lawyers and witnesses present.

The secret sessions were held so as not to compromise national security and the inner workings of MI5 and counter terror police, families of the victims were told.

Over 10 days last December five MI5 witnesses gave evidence and seven officers from North West Counter Terror Police (NWCTP).

Witness J, a senior corporate witness for MI5, told the closed hearings, resources had no impact on any decisions or judgments relating to Arena bomber Salman Abedi.

But Kim Harrison, from law firm Slater and Gordon, who represents families of 12 of those murdered in the Manchester Arena bombing said:

"Our clients are deeply shocked and appalled by the evidence read today that the MI5 North West investigative team were struggling to cope with a significant increase and change in workload from 2015.

"To hear that concerns had apparently been raised with superiors regarding the triaging of intelligence, including worries that something could get through due to the volumes of documents being considered is difficult to swallow.

"All of this is profoundly concerning.

"If further resources are needed to keep our country safe it is essential that they are provided as a matter of urgency."

The gisted evidence made public and read out by Paul Greaney QC, counsel to the inquiry, also hints at some sub-optimal information sharing between MI5 and NWCTP.

But the gisted evidence, running to 15 pages, does not reveal any further details about the two pieces of intelligence received by MI5 prior to the Arena attack, the significance of which was not fully appreciated at the time and not shared with police.

This information is deemed too sensitive to national security to be made public.

The MI5 officer who first evaluated one piece of intelligence admitted during closed hearings it could have been understood, "to indicate activity of pressing national security concern".

However witness J told the closed hearings he did not agree.

Neither did MI5 inform police Abedi had travelled to Libya in May 2016.

Salman Abedi had been on and off the radar of the security services both as an "open" or active suspect deemed worthy of further investigation before being deemed a "closed" subject of interest.

Mr Greaney also told the inquiry in late 2016 a study by counter-terror police revealed 544 "fighting-aged boys and men" travelled from Manchester to Libya in the space of three months.

NWCTP worked with local mosques the inquiry was told to prevent travel to Syria for extremist purposes but got a "less positive" response from Didsbury Mosque, where the Abedi family sometimes worshipped.

Manchester-born Abedi, whose parents are Libyan, had become radicalised in the years before the attack, the inquiry has heard.

He murdered 22 people and injured hundreds more after detonating a home-made bomb at the Manchester Arena on May 22 2017.

The public inquiry has now adjourned until a later date after the final day of evidence on Tuesday.

After 194 days of hearings, having called 291 witnesses and considered 172,000 pages of documents, the names of the 22 murdered were read out and a minute's silence held at the close of today's hearing.

Inquiry chairman, Sir John Saunders will publish two final reports on the emergency service response and "preventability" of the attack, expected later in the year.

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