Manchester Arena bomber Salman Abedi and brother Hashem fled scene of car crash in Fallowfield weeks before attack, court told

The brothers ran away after crashing their silver Toyota Aygo into another car in Fallowfield on March 23, 2017, and failed to tend to the 'traumatised and crying' woman driving the other car, according to an eye witness

Manchester Arena bomber Salman Abedi and his brother Hashem fled the scene of a crash two months before the attack and called one eye-witness 'p***y' for calling police, a jury heard.

The brothers ran away after crashing their silver Toyota Aygo into another car in Fallowfield on March 23, 2017, and failed to tend to the 'traumatised and crying' woman driving the other car, according to an eye witness.

They were seen trying to repair the vehicle and ripping labels from cardboard boxes in the rear of their car before verbally abusing a pedestrian witness for calling police before running away in opposite directions, a jury at the Old Bailey in London was told.

The prosecution say the brothers were using the car as part of efforts to source 'precursor chemicals' used in the manufacture of deadly TATP explosive used in the deadly attack but their plans were 'thrown somewhat into disarray' because of the crash.

Two months later Salman Abedi, 22, detonated an improvised explosive device (IED) packed with TATP while he was standing in the foyer of Manchester Arena as concert-goers were leaving an Ariana Grande concert on May 22, 2017.

He killed himself and 22 others, some of them children, in the blast and hundreds more were hurt by 3,000 pieces of shrapnel packed into the device.

The prosecution say his brother Hashem helped him source the chemicals and shrapnel in the form of nuts and cross dowels for the bomb.

On the ninth day of the trial at the Old Bailey, a witness to the crash, Eddie Cooper, told jurors he was walking along Wellington Road when he saw the crash at the junction with Mauldeth Road West in Fallowfield on the afternoon of March 23, 2017.

The silver Toyota Aygo in which the brothers were said to travelling suffered significant damage to its front when it hit another car, sending the car spinning into a wall, the court heard.

The woman driving the other car was left 'traumatised and crying' but the occupants of the Aygo were more concerned about trying to repair their vehicle so they could drive away and the cardboard boxes in the rear, the court was told.

Mr Cooper told the jurors he was shocked that 'no-one from the other car came over to see if she was OK'.

The witness said he went to see if there was a response from the two men.

"As I walking over there were two males looking at the car trying to repair and trying to move it, trying to drive off," said Mr Cooper.

The bumper had come off the front of the car and the males were trying to put it back on and 'get the car moving again', he said.

Mr Cooper said: "One of them I pretty much came face to face with. I was on the phone to the police telling them about the incident. I had to get the car registration of the car that was involved.

"As I was walking over the two males, one of them approached me. He knew I was on the phone to the police and he called me a p***y.

"The jurors are told that at the time the witness gave police descriptions of the two males: the driver was of middle eastern appearance with a light skin colour, aged about 20 and 6ft 1in tall, and he was wearing  a navy hat with a multi-coloured bobble, a navy jacket and jogging bottoms; the passenger was a male with light brown skin, aged about 20, 5ft 11in, slim with short dark brown hair and he was wearing a tracksuit and flip flops.

Asked what he thought of the 'p***y' jibe, Mr Cooper said: "I was kind of shocked. Obviously I was on the phone reporting the incident. As soon as he said that to me, they both went off in different directions."

Mr Cooper said there were four or five brown cardboard boxes on the back seat of their damaged car and the pair were 'tampering with them - ripping labels off'.

Asked by the prosecutor what happened when the men 'split', Mr Cooper said 'the one with the sliders' went up Wellington Road and the other went south along Wellington Road behind the library.

He said he had been verbally abused by the one wearing the sliders.Asked why he thought he had been abused, Mr Cooper said: "Just because I was on the phone reporting it."

Under cross-examination by Stephen Kamlish QC, defending Hashem Abedi, Mr Cooper said he could not recall whether the man had tried to remove the bumper.

The witness said he remembered the bumper ripped off and the males were trying to drive away.

The QC suggested the boxes were in the rear of the car and not on the back seat, and Mr Cooper said he thought they were 'just in the back'.

"I noticed them doing something to the boxes," he said.

The jurors also heard from Mr Cooper's then partner Annya Weir, who also saw the crash.

She told the jury: "We were walking from Withington and walking down the road and saw a car which was meant to stop but didn't. It hit another car and the lady in the car span around.

"It was quite a big collision. It all happened really quickly."Ms Weir said she was 'a bit shocked' and she ran over to see if the lady was OK. She said she saw another car and two males. Ms Weir told the jury that when they were calling the police one of the males said 'no, no' and called her partner 'pussy'.

"It was strange in a way because you would think they would ask if the lady was OK, but they didn't. They just stayed in the car," she said.

She said she saw plain cardboard boxes in the car and the males were 'taking things off them'.

The boxes were in the boot of the car and the boot was open while this happened, she said.

Ms Weir said that after her partner had been abused there had been no more conversation with the males.

She said she wasn't sure which one had abused her partner but she said the taller one with the greyer skin was the driver and he also had a thin moustache.

One of the males ran towards Withington while the other stayed in the car even though it was 'quite damaged' and he 'tried to put the car back together a little bit and drive off'.

But the male who remained didn't manage to drive off and ran off in the opposite direction, she told the jury.

"None of them spoke to the lady to see if she's OK and that's what stuck with us," said Ms Weir.

Police arrived at the scene of the crash and the Aygo was later removed to be scrapped, the jurors were told.

Hashem Abedi, 22, from Fallowfield is standing trial at the Old Bailey in London where he denies 22 counts of murder, one charge of attempted murder concerning those who were hurt but survived and a charge that he conspired with Salman Abedi to cause an explosion. 

Proceeding.