Manchester attacker's brother accused of creating 'slaughter' email address to buy bomb ingredients

An email address meaning "we have come to slaughter" in Arabic and linked to the Manchester bomber's brother was used to buy chemicals before the attack, a court heard.

Pieces of paper with bedab7jeana@gmail.com written on them were discovered in a bin at the home of Salman and Hashem Abedi, a court at the Old Bailey heard.

Prosecutors claim the email address was created two months before the attack at Manchester Arena, which killed 22 people in May 2017.

The blast on 22 May happened in a busy foyer of the venue in northwest England packed with men, women and children, and injured more than 200 others.

Read More: UK to overhaul terror sentences after London knife attack

Opening the case in London at England's Central Criminal Court, prosecutor Duncan Penny said Hashem Abedi was equally as responsible for the attack as his brother who carried it out.

"After the explosion, the same email address was found on handwritten torn-up pieces of paper in one of the bins at the Elsmore Road address," said Duncan Penny QC.

"Translated [in Arabic], 'bedabjeana' means 'To slaughter we have come', or 'We have come to slaughter'", added Penny, according to Sky News.

The case is expected to last eight weeks

People in Manchester remember the victims of the bombing [Getty]

"The prosecution's case is that this defendant is just as guilty of the murder of the 22 people killed as was his brother," Penny told the jury, adding that the email address was used to buy 30 litres of hydrogen peroxide – one of three ingredients for the explosives - on Amazon on 3 April 2017.

"He is equally guilty of the attempted murder of many others and in doing so he was guilty of agreeing with his brother to cause an explosion or explosions of a nature likely to endanger life."

The court heard the attack was the result of months of planning, experimentation and preparation by the brothers.

Hashem Abedi, the younger brother of the terrorist who blew himself up, is now 22 years old. He allegedly obtained chemicals for a home-made bomb and got metal containers in order to construct it.

The sibling was extradited from Libya in July 2019.

He also found an address in Manchester to manufacture the explosive and store it, and bought screws and nails for shrapnel, the court was told.

He also purchased a car to store bomb-making equipment, it was alleged.

"The bomb which was detonated was self-evidently designed to kill and maim as many people as possible," said Penny.

"It was packed with lethal shrapnel and it was detonated in the middle of a crowd in a very public area - the intention being to kill and to inflict maximum damage."

The lawyer added: "Such was the ferocity of this explosion that Salman Abedi was dismembered in the process.

"The scene that met the survivors and those that attended thereafter was one of destruction and chaos."

The court heard the Abedi family lived in south Manchester but the brothers' parents returned to their native Libya in 2016.

Hashem Abedi denies 22 counts of murder, attempted murder and conspiring to cause explosions.

The case is expected to last for up to eight weeks.

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram to stay connected