The father of the youngest victim of the Manchester Arena bombing has said he is preparing to sue security services over failures to act on intelligence that could have prevented the attack.
Andrew Roussos, the father of Saffie Roussos who tragically died aged just eight, previously said MI5 have 'blood on their hands' after a public inquiry into the atrocity found the security service failed to follow up information that could have stopped bomber Salman Abedi.
Speaking on Times Radio this morning, Mr Roussos said MI5 have 'most of the blame' for the tragic attack in May 2017, where 22 people sadly lost their lived after Abedi detonated a bomb shortly after an Ariana Grande concert at the city centre venue.
READ MORE: The Arena bombing happened after the security services let us down. Why won't they tell us why?
Mr Roussos said: “It’s the only way to learn, everybody learns by hitting them hard in the pocket, I am sorry to say.
“At 2017 we were at the highest alert and everybody was warned of an attack in this country and MI5 who their sole job, they are well-funded and well-equipped, had 22 pieces of information about Salman Abedi.
“So if they would have learnt lessons they wouldn’t have allowed Abedi to walk into that arena. So yes MI5 have, for me, most of the blame.”
The Sunday Times reported that he claimed a number of other families had indicated they might join him in the legal action.
It comes after a public inquiry into the bombing, led by Sir John Saunders, concluded earlier this week. In his 207-page report, Saunders highlighted that if intelligence had been followed up immediately it could have led to Abedi, 22, being followed to the parked Nissan Micra where he stored the explosive, and which he later moved to a rented city centre flat to assemble.
Now Mr Roussos’ solicitors, Broudie Jackson Canter, say they are looking at a possible High Court claim which would rest upon Article 2 of the Human Rights Act, which protects the right to life.
Speaking this morning, Mr Roussos added: “It’s alright saying that Manchester wasn’t prepared that night, which it wasn’t, and the arena was so not prepared for such an attack, for me knowing the information we knew at the start, Salman Abedi should not have made it to that arena that night, there were too many missed opportunities.”
He said that the apology from MI5 had come too late for him and added: “I can’t accept apologies for losing Saffie, I want Saffie back in my life and I can’t have that.
“An apology for missing 22 opportunities to stop the attacker, how can I accept an apology.
“If you want to make an apology something meaningful, apologise from day one, that would mean a lot more than waiting for an inquiry to see if you are in any way, shape or form to blame for this attack.”
Describing his daughter, he said: “I find this so difficult to explain what she was like when people ask me, she was just a bundle of love and joy and one of a kind that we miss dearly and wish that we could have her back.
“She was just a human magnet full of love, beautiful from top to toe and just a one-of-a-kind child who will always be sadly missed.”
The families of three Manchester Arena bombing victims slammed the institutions and organisations cited in the inquiry on Thursday, after it found there was 'a significant missed opportunity to take action' on the part of MI5.
Previous reports by Saunders criticised the emergency services' readiness on the night, and highlighted a string of “missed opportunities” at the arena venue to identify Abedi as a threat before he walked across the City Room foyer and detonated his shrapnel-laden device.
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