3 terrorists including Manchester Arena bomber's brother guilty of prison officer attack

Three jailed terrorists including the brother of the Manchester Arena bomber beat a prison guard with a chair in an "animalistic" attack.

Belmarsh officer, Paul Edwards, 57, was hit with a chair and repeatedly punched and kicked by Hashem Abedi, 24, Parsons Green Tube bomber Ahmed Hassan, 22, and Muhammed Saeed, 23, who spoke about carrying out a knife attack in London.

All three denied assault causing actual bodily harm (ABH) to Mr Edwards but were found guilty at Woolwich Crown Court on Tuesday by a jury after more than three hours of deliberations.

The incident was captured on CCTV which was then played to the court (PA)

The incident at HMP Belmarsh on May 11, 2020 was caught on CCTV and allegedly shows the Manchester Arena bomber, Salman Abedi's brother, Hashem Abedi, smiling as he carried out his attack.

Custodian manager, Mr Edwards, who has worked at the prison for 25 years was allegedly responsible for taking away privileges from Abedi and Hassan after they shaved their heads, GBNews reports.

The trio set upon the officer, who was allegedly responsible for taking away some of their privileges (PA)

Mr Edwards said: “I feared for my life and I genuinely thought if I hadn’t fought back I could end up with at least extreme injuries or dead.”

Abedi was also found guilty of assault by beating of an emergency worker after kicking prison officer Nick Barnett as he came to his colleague's aid.

In its report of the case, GB News said a fellow prison officer described the attack he witnesses as 'animalistic'.

Prison officer Paul Langridge, who has worked in Belmarsh for almost 14 years, said he was first into the office after the defendants to see them “viciously attacking” his colleague.

The trio allegedly beat Mr Edwards with a chair in an "animalistic" attack (PA)

“All three of them were crowding round Paul Edwards. They were throwing punches, throwing kicks,” he said.

“It was just a vicious, animalistic attack.”

Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said she will sentence them later on Tuesday.

Hashem Abedi was jailed in 2020 for his assistance in the plot of the Manchester Arena attack which saw his brother kill himself and 22 others at an Ariana Grande concert with a shrapnel packed bomb in 2017.

Mr Edwards suffered injuries to the head after he was 'repeatedly kicked and punched' (PA)

The Abedi brothers, from Fallowfield in south Manchester, had spent months ordering, stockpiling and transporting the deadly materials for the terror attack, using multiple mobile phones, addresses and runaround vehicles to make their bomb.

The pair had joined their parents in Libya the month before the blast, but Salman returned to the UK on May 18 with the final components needed for the explosive device.

As well as their 22 fatal victims, countless others suffered life-changing injuries as they innocently enjoyed the gig on May 22, nearly five years ago.