Manchester Arena attack: Brother's garden 'full of metal tins'

Hashem Abedi was unreliable and appeared dishonest, his former boss said

The Manchester Arena bomber's brother had a front garden that looked like a "pizza shop" because he hoarded empty cans from work, a court heard.

Hashem Abedi, 22, collected metal tins and skewers to allegedly fashion prototype bombs before the attack.

The jury heard a piece of metal was recovered after his brother Salman Abedi detonated a homemade bomb which killed 22 people on 22 May 2017.

Hashem Abedi denies involvement in the blast.

His former boss, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, said in a statement read to the court that Hashem Abedi worked for him as a delivery driver at his takeaway in Greater Manchester in 2016 and early 2017.

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He briefly left to work for a "rich friend" in Germany but returned to his cash-in-hand job on £5 an hour, the court heard.

The witness said Hashem Abedi, originally from Manchester, was unreliable, "smoked weed" and "did not appear honest".

He said he heard him ask other workers if he could take cash orders and tell customers he had no change "so he could keep it for himself".

"Hashem was religious but in my opinion he had wrong the idea of Islam," the witness said.

Hashem Abedi's former boss said he did not know if Hashem Abedi sold the tins

The witness said Hashem Abedi asked him if he could have the empty metal containers from the shop to sell them as scrap metal, which he agreed to.

The jury heard that pasta sauce tins, jalapeno tins and large cooking oil tins were all taken - as well as cans from others businesses.

"I don't know if he sold any of the tins," the witness said.

Hashem Abedi asked his boss for empty tin cans to sell for scrap metal, the jury heard

He added other staff had told him Hashem's front garden "looked like a pizza shop with sauce tins lying around".

Hashem Abedi denies 22 counts of murder, one of attempted murder and one of conspiring to cause an explosion.

The trial continues.