Manchester Arena bomber was feckless and lazy, says head teacher

Ian Fenn said there was no suggestion Salman Abedi was radicalised while at school

Manchester Arena bomber Salman Abedi was a feckless and lazy pupil who was carefully groomed into a terrorist, his former head teacher has said.

Abedi detonated a homemade explosive, killing 22 people, on 22 May 2017 at the end of an Ariana Grande concert.

Ian Fenn, who has since retired from Burnage Academy for Boys in Manchester, said Abedi could "barely light a Bunsen burner" while a pupil at his school.

"He did what he did but he wasn't a lone wolf," said Mr Fenn.

Abedi studied at the school for about 18 months between 2009 and 2011.

Mr Fenn said he could "surprisingly remember" a lot about Abedi considering the number of pupils he had come into contact with over the years.

He said this was because Abedi was the first to be caught "doing something wrong" on a new security system after the school relocated to a new building.

He said Abedi had been captured on CCTV stealing a mobile phone, which he later denied.

"I showed him the footage," said Mr Fenn. "He wasn't in the slightest bit fazed by it - it was a shrug of the shoulders and no shame.

"That summed him up as a person - a non-entity."

Salman Abedi planned the attack with his younger brother Hashem

Mr Fenn said there was no suggestion from anyone at the time that Abedi was being radicalised.

"He wouldn't have known how to make a bomb -he could barely light a Bunsen burner," said Mr Fenn.

"But with the training, with the tutoring, and with the support around him, he did what he did.

"But he wasn't a lone wolf - he wasn't on his own."

The retired head teacher said be believed the radicalisation of Abedi happened "way after he left school".

"He was still getting stoned when he was at college," he said.

"You're not much of a jihadist if you're out partying every weekend."

Mr Fenn's comments were made ahead of the publication of the final Manchester Arena Inquiry report, which will focus on the radicalisation of Abedi as well as whether it could have been prevented.

• What is the Manchester Arena Inquiry?

• Manchester attack: Who were the victims?

"There's no way Salman did this on his own," Mr Fenn said.

"He would have had to be carefully groomed and moulded from being feckless, lacklustre, rather lazy...into being somebody with a purpose of killing himself and as many other people as possible.

"That just doesn't happen through osmosis. That doesn't happen overnight.

"That level of ferocity and evil is something that is inculcated and takes time."

Twenty-two people died in the bombing on 22 May 2017

Mr Fenn said he did not regret accepting Abedi - along with his younger brother Hashem - as pupils as they had to be educated.

But he added: "There's kind of a sadness that you feel when all the things that you did that were at the cutting-edge of what people were doing in terms of trying to combat radicalisation didn't work and nor can they.

"No system is perfect and at the end of the day people make choices.

"Schools are a big influence but we have them five hours a day for 190 days a year - that's all.

"The rest of the time they are with other people and those people tend to have a bigger influence."

You can watch more on this story on BBC News at Ten on Wednesday 1 March.

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