A security guard who was on shift the night of the Manchester Arena attack has spoken at the inquiry into the events that’s night and has said that he did not raise the alarm with a supervisor about Salman Abedi due to the fear of being “branded a racist”.
Kyle Lawler, who on the night of the terror incident was 18, told the inquiry that he had undertaken training in what to look out for but was “naive” and believed it “won’t happen to me”. Mr Lawler has said that Abedi was sitting among a “group of white people” and that his behaviour was “slightly nervous”.
Mr Lawler has said: “I was scared of being wrong and being branded a ‘racist’ – if I got it wrong, I would have got into trouble. It made me hesitant on what to do by overreacting or judging someone by their race”. When asked, he confirmed that he felt this was the reason that he did not immediately raise an alarm about Abedi.
Mr Lawler was working for the events management company Showsec and had done since leaving school at 16. Before he gave his evidence, a statement was read out to the inquiry from Mr Lawler which said: “I found it very difficult to give a clear account of what happened, to disentangle what I saw and thought then with what I know now with the benefit of hindsight in circumstances where everything happened quickly”.
The enquiry continues.
Current Affairs Correspondent | My name is Oliver Down I am 22, and a staunch brexiteer. I am a Bristolian lad who studied politics in Leicester. I believe in free speech and accurate journalism and I won’t be afraid to give you “the other side” of the story!
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