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Updated at 11pm
POLICE IN THE UK have arrested six men and one woman in connection with the Manchester bombing that killed 22 people and injured dozens more.
The latest man was arrested after searches at an address in Nuneaton, Warwickshire.
This morning, the Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said that four men were arrested after warrants were issued in connection with the investigation.
Police arrested a woman after a raid on a block of flats in Blackley, Manchester.
They’ve also arrested a sixth in Wigan.
“We have made an arrest in Wigan this afternoon in connection with the investigation into the horrific incident at Manchester Arena,” police said in a statement.
When arrested, the man was carrying a package which we are currently assessing.
Police say that those arrested remain in custody for questioning.
Reuters are also reporting that the younger brother and father of the bomber Salman Abedi have been arrested in the Libyan capital of Tripoli.
A local counter-terrorism force told Reuters that both men were detained yesterday evening, but this hasn’t yet been confirmed.
Security
The attacker was named yesterday as Salman Abedi, a British man of Libyan heritage who died in the explosion.
British interior minister Amber Rudd said today that it was likely that Abedi was not acting alone.
“It was a devastating occasion, it was more sophisticated than some of the attacks we’ve seen before, and it seems likely – possible – that he wasn’t doing this on his own,” she told BBC radio.
Rudd confirmed that Abedi had been on the radar for security services before the attack.
We do know that he was known up to a point to the intelligence services,” she told Sky News.
Clarifying this on the BBC she said: “The security services will know a lot of people. It doesn’t mean that they’re expected to arrest everybody they know.
But it is somebody that they had known.
She said she had “complete confidence” in the security services.
Last night UK prime minister Theresa May raised the terror threat in Britain to ‘Critical’, the highest it has been for a decade, indicating a terror attack is expected imminently.
In practice, this will see armed military forces at important sites and key locations, as well as at events such as concerts and sports matches.
With reporting from AFP
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Some neck on these two.
@The Viking: I guess if you were in their situation and facing years in prison we all chance your arm at anything.
The arrogance of these people is hard for me to take. It’s obvious there guilty
@Paul O Riordan: They didn’t offer any real defence in court as they knew it would be ripped apart by the prosecution.
I have to say I was shocked to see the jury members say what they were saying on the TV. I thought there would be some sort of instruction not to speak to the media about their jury duty.
@Paul Mc Nulty: it’s certainly not the way things are done here. But apparently the judge would have needed to issue the jurors with a gag order, which he didn’t.
@Donnachaín Ní Uallacháin: or issue the media with an order not to harass jurors in any trial. The media is at fault here not the jury. Media are supposed to be professional the jurors are lay people not used to dealing with the law or madia outlets.
I just hope the conviction is upheld but if a new trial is called i hope they are convicted of murder 1
I had several issues with the claims of the two. The number of blows, time elapsed before calling for aid, and her rubbing at her neck during police custody. Additionally, if my father were in the position of hers, he would come to my defence with fists, not a bat. He would be up and running, not stopping for a weapon.
@Rathminder: also telling is the fact that he told police that he woke to hear them arguing and stomping around upstairs and he went up with the intention of telling them to ‘knock it off’. Why would he bring a baseball bat to do that? And he was still wearing his watch which is unusual as most people would take their watch off before going to bed. Unless he stopped to put it back on again before going for the baseball bat.
As he is a former member of the FBI, i would have thought he would have been able to commit, cover up and justify the murder in a more professional manner
@Anne Marie Devlin: He may not have been very good at his job. The police said the crime scene was altered.
It was obvious that Molly Martens was told to wear loose-fitting dresses, flat shoes and a ponytail to portray the small, innocent schoolgirl look. They tried to portray Jason Corbett as a big, violent Irish lout. They banked too heavily on the typical Irish stereotype. I think it would have been prudent for the judge to issue a gag order in this case because this pair will stop at nothing. They just can’t accept the fact that they are not above the law.
So two murderers are putting their faith in a technicality to get off.
@Niallers: Unfortunately it is often more thsn enough to get away with murder.
US attorneys go out of their way to tell their clients how to look and act, and pick jurors based on their estimates of their prejudices based on age, gender and background.
When their sociopath clients show no remorse in the courtroom they then complain that the same jurors judged their clients based on prejudice against sociopaths.
As much as I like hearing jurors talk about their cases after the fact, they should have some advice from judges about how to phrase any statements so as not to leave open doors to appeal from public statements.
I don’t think the jurors were swayed by outside influences.
More like the the fact that they were bloody guilty!
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