'They were, each and every one of them, unique and special people' - tributes as Manchester Arena bombing inquiry draws to a close

19.01.2022 - 15:24 / manchestereveningnews.co.uk

Tributes were paid to the 'unique and special' lives lost in the Manchester Arena bombing as evidence at the public inquiry into the atrocity drew to a close.

Hearings began on September 7, 2020, and continued, remotely, through the Covid pandemic lockdown.

Split into 14 chapters, the inquiry has examined aspects of the terror attack in painstaking detail, with dozens of witnesses called and hundreds of statements gathered.

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Paul Greaney QC, counsel to the inquiry, said on Tuesday - day 192 of the inquiry - that no more oral evidence would be given 'in relation to the deeply complex and highly important issue of the adequacy of the emergency response on the night of the Arena attack'.

Further evidence surrounding MI5 and counter-terrorism police will be heard over a day in February - followed by two days of closing statements from counsel representing beavered families and other parties involved in the inquiry on the 'planning and preparation of the attack, preventability and the radicalisation' of mass murderer Salman Abedi, whose suicide bomb killed 22.

Figen Murray, mother of victim Martyn Hett, 29, said as evidence concluded 'it seems that every chapter of the inquiry highlights the failures of the security and emergency services'.

She said: "We can't turn back the clock, but we can learn lessons to ensure that these failures are not repeated in the wake of another attack."

Mr Greaney said: "Over the course of this part of the hearings, we have heard evidence of great heroism by a large number of individuals who responded to this outrage.

"We have heard directly the extremely affecting evidence from some of the survivors, and those who helped them, about their harrowing experiences on the night.

"Most