Manchester Arena Inquiry: Police chief admits bomb response failings

Robin Smith was the senior commander in charge of British Transport Police's response

A senior police chief has admitted his force failed to work effectively with other emergency services in the Manchester Arena attack's aftermath.

Robin Smith was the gold commander for British Transport Police (BTP) on the night of the 2017 bombing.

The Manchester Arena Inquiry heard he only spoke to the gold commander at Greater Manchester Police (GMP) two hours and 45 minutes after the blast.

He also did not try to speak to senior fire and ambulance services officers.

Twenty-two people were killed and hundreds more injured when Salman Abedi detonated a bomb at the end of an Ariana Grande concert on 22 May 2017.

Mr Smith was in a marked police car travelling to Manchester on blue lights from his home in the south of England when he first managed to speak to GMP's gold commander Assistant Chief Constable Debbie Ford.

'Alternatives'

He agreed it was "not acceptable" that it took so long for the two gold commanders to speak to each other, but added "the challenge...was trying to establish who (GMP) gold [commander] was".

He said Ms Ford did not inform him that GMP had declared Operation Plato - a pre-determined response to a marauding terrorist firearms attack.

He said he accepted mistakes were made in the response, but he denied claims that he made very little strategic decisions.

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Mr Smith joined BTP in September 2016 as an assistant chief constable, but he said he had not read the BTP major incident manual or had any training in it by the time of the arena attack.

He accepted that as a potential gold commander, he should have read the manual.

He also admitted he was unaware it would take at least an hour for his bronze commander Supt Kyle Gordon, who was tasked with co-ordinating events at ground level, to arrive at the blast scene.

The inquiry has heard Supt Gordon was tasked to attend the venue at 23:12 BST but did not arrive until after 01:00, more than 90 minutes after the bomb had been detonated.

Nicholas de la Poer QC, counsel to the inquiry, asked him if he, as gold commander, had had "a clear sense of how long it would take for Supt Gordon to attend the scene?"

Mr Smith said he "did not" and added that he would have asked if there were "alternatives" if he had known it would take Supt Gordon so long to arrive.

The inquiry continues.

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