A survivor of the Manchester Arena bombing has hit out at Hashem Abedi's attack on three prison officers at HMP Frankland, branding the incident "unbelievable".Abedi, brother of Manchester bomber Salman Abedi, threw boiling cooking oil over the officers and used homemade weapons to stab them, according to the Prison Officers' Association.FULL STORY HERE.
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00:01It's unbelievable. It's just unbelievable that he can commit these crimes and then go to trial, get found guilty of all these murders, go to prison, attack someone, you know, a couple of years ago and still be able to have the freedom and the privileges to do it again, to continue to hurt and mean people. It's unbelievable.
00:26And a lot of people are asking, you know, why on earth is this guy even in the country? You know, I mean, he's obviously of Libyan descent. He clearly had no problem going back to Libya at some point. His mum and dad seem to be in Libya. I mean, you know, how do you feel about that? Do you think that maybe he shouldn't really be in Britain?
00:43I don't. I don't know. I'm not sure about that. But I know that he shouldn't be able to just go into a prison and make friends and potentially rile each other up.
00:55He should be in some sort of solitary confinement where he's not got access to anyone or anything at the very least.
01:02Is that how you would like to see this guy treated, which is essentially locked in solitary confinement, no privileges, no TV, just kind of a dark room for the rest of his life?
01:14Yeah.
01:15Yeah.
01:16Hmm.
01:17I mean, when the trial was happening, obviously, he was the brother of Salman Abidi. And, you know, you just didn't know what was going on now is it keeps on over and over again, proving like it's true colours, keeps on hurting people is obviously evil to the core.
01:39And, you know, he just shouldn't be allowed to have any kind of privileges. He's stopped other people's human rights. Why should he be allowed any?
01:49Could I just ask you if it's OK to just describe your experiences of that night? Because you were caught up in that fateful night at the Manchester Arena at that concert.
02:00I believe that you were injured there and obviously you must have seen some horrendous things. If it's OK, would you mind explaining that to our viewers and listeners, please?
02:09Yeah, I mean, I always took my nephew for his birthday and we went out onto the concourse after Ariana finished singing Dangerous Woman. We went out onto the concourse. Everyone was, you know, buzzing and happy.
02:27And there was kids running around with lights on the heads and things like that. And then went into the foyer and all of a sudden it just everything just went white and then orange.
02:38And then you just flew. Like, you just you just felt this force against you and you had no idea what was going on for a minute.
02:47I mean, it might sound a bit silly, but for a minute I couldn't comprehend that it had come from inside the same room.
02:54I didn't even realise that I was, you know, quite badly injured until I got outside, until my nephew carried me out.
03:03But yeah, I couldn't comprehend that it come from in the room and actually I thought it might have been like a nuclear thing.
03:08And we was getting some sort of like aftershock. I didn't know what it was.
03:13So the room was just filled with smoke. It was it was just horrendous.
03:19And it has had lasting effects on you, hasn't it, Jade? I think it has had lasting effects on you.
03:25I think the, you know, there's obviously some kind of trauma there that must have stayed with you and the injuries as well.
03:31Yeah. I was in physio for about 18 months afterwards.
03:36I was in a wheelchair at first, not for very long, but it severed the ligaments and the tendons in my leg and damaged the nerves and stuff in my foot.
03:49So it was it was like injury.
03:51And what we subsequently found out about this bomb is that it wasn't just just a bomb, as you say,
03:56but it was also they packed it full of all sorts to make it worse.
04:00They'd also they'd put a load of nails in there. They'd put a load of bolts and everything in there.
04:04Everything you possibly think of to try to inflict the maximum, maximum amount of damage and pain and suffering to what was.
04:13And they must have known this an arena that was full of, yeah, men and women, but also kids, children.
04:19And I mean, she's she's literally predominantly aimed at children, at teenagers.
04:25But, yeah, he knew exactly what he was doing and he knew exactly what the target was.
04:30And so did his brother. They both knew.
04:33And they did that on purpose. I mean, take that played there the week before.
04:38In fact, a few nights before. Do you know what I mean?
04:40They didn't target that one. Obviously, I'm glad that nothing happened there.
04:44But, you know, they chose that one to target because of the audience.
04:50Yeah. And then to after all of this, think that you find because you find more out then about the people who committed this.
04:57Obviously, Salman's dead. And then you've got, you know, his father is coming out in the press a couple of days later saying he doesn't believe his son can do could do any of this stuff.
05:06Oh, no, he's a straight. He's a good student. He's a nice boy.
05:09You know, it must have been pretty galling for you. And then more comes out, doesn't it?
05:13You've got Hashem here who, you know, doesn't appear to show any remorse whatsoever and and, you know, is able to, you know, carry on in some way, shape or form enjoying his life.
05:27I mean, in an ideal world, I know you spoke about solitary confinement and things like that.
05:31I don't want to drag you down a route you might be uncomfortable with here.
05:34But I mean, I don't know. I mean, part of me thinks we should bring back the death penalty for some of these people, Jade.
05:40I don't know. I don't know about I don't know about that.
05:43I just know that in this country, as it is now, we do have prisoners in this country that are in absolute solitary confinement.
05:51Why is he not there as well?
05:53It's doable. It's something that happens in this country on, you know, extreme occasions.
05:59This is an extreme occasion. It keeps how many prison guards does he have to hurt?
06:04Does he have to kill someone?
06:06Yes, it beggars belief. It beggars belief.