Injured children to share nearly £20m

Nearly £20m is to be paid to children who were injured in the Manchester Arena bomb, a judge has ruled.

Payments from £2,770 to £11.4m were agreed at a Manchester Civil Courts of Justice hearing for 16 people who were all aged under 16 at the time of the attack at the end of an Ariana Grande concert.

Some suffered “catastrophic” and life-changing injuries while others experienced severe psychological damage after a suicide bomber detonated a homemade device at the arena on 22 May 2017, the court heard.

The damages will be paid by venue manager SMG Europe Holdings, Showsec International Ltd, who provided crowd management, Greater Manchester Police (GMP) and British Transport Police (BTP).

Twenty two people died and hundreds more were injured in the blast after an Ariana Grande concert.

A public inquiry into the bombing, led by Sir John Saunders, later found that chances to stop the attack had been missed along with “serious shortcomings” in security and individual failings.

Judge Nigel Bird approved the 16 claims, agreed between their lawyers and the defendants, as they all involved children or those without mental capacity. A court order bans identifying any of the 16 or their families.

It is understood following the hearing, claims by another 352 people, all adults deemed to have capacity, including the families of the 22 who lost loved ones, will now be agreed between lawyers for the defendants and the claimants.

As those agreements have been made out-of-court, no details of any public money to be paid out by the public bodies – BTP and GMP – will be made public.

Each of the four organisations has apologised to the bereaved families and to the survivors, lawyers for the claimants said, and have acknowledged their failures.

Judge Bird told the hearing: “Each of these cases has a common link, that is injuries and loss suffered, arising out of a single and unimaginable act of terrorism committed on the evening of May 22 2017 at the end of a concert attended by very many young people and their families.

“Twenty-two innocent lives were lost and and the lives of countless others impacted.

“The love and care a parent gives to an injured child is beyond monetary value.”

The judge paid tribute to the “courage, dedication and fortitude” of the families involved in each case.

He added: “Each, through their quiet determination, has brought about promises of change in the hope that in the future, other families need not go through what they have been through.”

After the hearing, a joint statement was issued from the legal teams at Hudgell Solicitors, Slater & Gordon and Broudie Jackson Canter, the three lead firms representing the claimants.

The statement said: “This is not a day of celebration. It is a moment to acknowledge the mistakes that were made and the unimaginable suffering our clients have endured over the past eight-and-a-half years.

“Their strength and resilience have been extraordinary, and without that, we would not have reached this settlement.

“We now expect all parties to honour their commitment to do what they can to prevent those same mistakes from happening again.

“It has been a privilege to work on behalf of our courageous clients. We wish them only peace and strength as they look to the future.”

Martyn’s Law, named in memory of victim Martyn Hett, 29, has since been brought in to better protect public place from terror attacks – stipulating a range of extra safety measures large venues must undertake.

The public inquiry found a series of “missed opportunities” to spot and stop Abedi.

It heard he should have been identified as a threat and action taken sooner after he was reported as suspicious by a member of the public, who was “fobbed off”.

The arena area also had a CCTV “blind spot”, patrols of the area by security staff were not adequate and BTP officers took a two-hour lunch break to get a kebab before the attack.