Bizarre CCTV footage has shown how vandal Anwar Hosseni appeared to pray in front of the Glade of Light memorial - before damaging it. The 24-year-old was yesterday handed a community order after a series of scratches were found on the Manchester Arena bombing memorial in the city centre in February this year.
In footage shared with the Manchester Evening News Hosseni, of Salford, can be seen walking up to the side of the memorial, before bending down and scribbling something. He then moves onto another section of the memorial, crouching down and scratching something into the marble.
In the four minute long video, Hosseni then moves to another section further along the memorial which is lit by a streetlight, and stays there for a long period of time. He appears to be praying as he crouches, before he moves onto another section, makes an ‘X’ gesture with his arms and continues scratching the marks.
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Manchester Crown Court today (June 22) heard that the Glade of Light memorial, based in the city centre, was due to be unveiled in May in honour of the 22 people who were killed in the Manchester Arena bombing in 2017. But, on February 9, a family member of one of the deceased contacted the council and the police to inform them that the memorial had been damaged.
Prosecutor Julian Goode said police viewed CCTV footage from around the area and saw a man nearby, at around 2am. “As soon as he walked around the memorial, police viewed what they believed to be a male praying before he left the scene,” he said.
“At 2.47am the footage shows the male returning and at the time of 2.54am he can be seen bending down with what appears to be an implement in his hands and scratching something onto the names before he left the scene at 3.09am.”
Reports were carried out into the damage caused, the total of which came to a staggering £10,768.80. Hosseni, of Salford, was arrested and interviewed the same day, and admitted to causing the damage.
In an interview, he told the police he was making the scratches with a crystal ‘Buddhist head figure’, making ‘light language’ to express ‘love, unity and gratitude’ to the 22 who sadly died in the attack.
In a victim personal statement, families of the deceased spoke of the impact the damage had caused to them. One said: “When I heard about the memorial being vandalised, it made me ill. How could somebody do this? We as a family find it conflicting that the crime caused to the beautiful memorial and the way it was desecrated is beyond belief. How can people be so cruel and thoughtless to stoop so low?”
Mitigating, Gwen Henshaw said Hosseni's mental illness was linked to the offence. “He said he was honouring the victims by etching marks as ‘light language’ in the expression of love, unity and gratitude towards the souls lost at the Manchester Arena,” she said.
“He now recognises his actions caused distress and the families of the victims and wider community of Manchester will be upset and angry. He is sorry for his actions and he will never do anything like that again.”
Sentencing, the Recorder of Manchester, Judge Nicholas Dean QC said: “Your actions during that night of February 9 were bizarre. But what you did was cause significant damage. “The damage to this memorial could have been interpreted by relatives and friends of the victims of the bombing as a sacrilegious act as desecrating the names of the victims.
“I have no doubt they were entirely understandable about seeing this as some sort of political motive, and that for some reason that expressed some support, not for the deceased, but for the bomber himself. I am satisfied that is not the case.
“But you will understand how it will be that many people interpreted what you did as desecrating in an act of dishonouring the memory of their loved ones.”
Hosseni, of Twillbrook Drive, was handed a two year community order, a 12 month mental health treatment programme and 10 days of rehabilitation activity requirements. He was also banned from entering the area around the Glade of Light memorial for two years under the terms of a Criminal Behaviour Order.
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