Andrew Roussos, father of an eight-year-old victim, intending to sue MI5 for carrying ‘most of the blame’ for the attack LONDON: The father of an eight-year-old victim of the Manchester Arena bombing has said he will sue the British intelligence agency MI5 for having “most of the blame” for the attack, according to British media. Andrew Roussos, who is the father of Saffie who died during an attack at an Ariana Grande concert at the Manchester Arena in May 2017, said he was consulting legal advice to look into failures by the UK’s security service. Roussos said he was intending to sue MI5 for carrying “most of the blame” for the attack, which killed 22 people and injured hundreds, adding they “missed chances” to stop bomber Salman Abedi. Speaking on Times Radio, he said: “It’s the only way to learn, everybody learns by hitting them hard in the pocket, I am sorry to say.” He continued: “At 2017 (the UK was) 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 Abedi. “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.” A high level of evidence was assessed surrounding circumstances of the atrocity between Sept. 7, 2020 and Feb. 15 last year. It 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. Roussos’ solicitors, Broudie Jackson Canter, said they were looking at a possible UK High Court claim, based on Article 2 of the Human Rights Act, which protects the right to life. A statement from the firm read: “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.” Following an apology from MI5 for its shortcomings in preventing the attack, Roussos said it 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?” He continued: “If you want to make an apology something meaningful, apologize 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.”