Bomber '˜was not a known extremist'

Floral tributes, pink balloons and messages of support are growing in St Anns Square in Manchester. Picture: AFP/Getty Images

The suicide attacker appeared on police logs in 2012 over offences of theft, receiving stolen goods and assault, Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police Ian Hopkins said yesterday.

However, Abedi had not featured in Prevent, the UK government’s voluntary counter-radicalisation scheme.

Fourteen men remain in custody after being arrested in connection with the investigation into the attack.

The first details of Abedi’s criminal past were revealed as the GMP chief was asked by a caller during a radio phone-in how the bomber could “slip through the net”.

Authorities have come under intense scrutiny amid claims members of the public had previously raised the alarm about the perpetrator.

Mr Hopkins said on the show: “What I do know about Abedi, the terrorist, is that he was known to the police for some relatively minor matters – theft, receiving stolen goods, minor assault. Those were in 2012.

“You know there has been a lot of reporting and people commenting that he was reported to us on a number of occasions. Abedi was not known to the Prevent programme … [he] was not on any sort of Prevent agenda.”

Host Mike Sweeney asked him: “Just to clarify, the reports you have got were to do with behaviour that was more associated with criminal behaviour rather than reports about his viewpoints being extremist?”

Mr Hopkins said: “Absolutely, at this stage I have no other information other than what is on our system about his theft, receiving stolen goods, minor assault, and that was in 2012. Five years ago, so he would have been 16, 17.”

It was revealed last week that Abedi, 22, was in a pool of former “subjects of interest” whose risk remained “subject to review” by MI5 and partner agencies.

It is understood the number of people considered previously by counter-terrorism teams runs to around 20,000. This is in addition to around 3,000 individuals flagged up as part of 500 live investigations currently being pursued.

MI5 is believed to be reviewing the intelligence held about Abedi and the decision-making around him prior to the attack. Twenty-two people were killed and dozens injured after the bomber struck following a concert by American singer Ariana Grande last Monday night.

Mr Hopkins said investigators would “leave no stone unturned in trying to nail down” Abedi’s last movements and trace “every single bit of property that is out there”.

An image of Abedi carrying a blue suitcase in Manchester on 22 May was released on Sunday in an effort to trace the item of luggage, and it emerged that police are searching a waste tip beside the M66 motorway between Bury and Heywood.