Dad of youngest Manchester bombing victim says ‘lessons should already have been learned’
The father of the youngest Manchester Arena bombing victim has said lessons ‘should have been already been learnt and in place’ after 7/7 and 9/11.
Andrew Roussos told the public inquiry into the attack the life of his eight-year-old daughter Saffie-Rose was ‘not a practice exercise’ for security and emergency services.
He spoke out after family and friends delivered emotional tributes to the youngster, who loved ones described as a ‘born entertainer’ who captured the hearts of strangers.
Her anguished mother Lisa told of the moment she woke from a coma to be told that Saffie was one of the 22 people to have died in the explosion in May 2017.
Mrs Roussos had accompanied her daughter to the Arena to watch Saffie’s idol, Ariane Grande, perform, a Christmas gift from her parents.
After hearing his wife recall how she pleaded with him to let her die when she learned of their child’s death, Mr Roussos stood up at Manchester Magistrates’ Court and said: ‘Sir, could I just say something. With the highest respect I feel I need to say this.
‘What we are all going through, the failures we are all listening to and the excuses we will all sit through, needs to stop. Enough is enough, sir.
‘At present in 2020, if we are still learning lessons then nothing will ever change. The biggest lesson and wake-up call should have come from 7/7 and 9/11.
‘Saffie’s life is not a practice exercise for the security services or the emergency services. Lessons should have already been learnt and in place.’
In a video recorded message played at the inquiry, Mrs Roussos said: ‘The day I woke up from the coma … Andrew held my hand and looked up at me, I instantly knew. “Saffie has gone, hasn’t she?” And he replied: “Yes”.
‘I cried and begged and pleaded with him to let me die too. I can look after her, I cried.
‘I did die that day. Inside I am dead. My heart is so heavy, it weighs me down.
‘But I have still got my part to play in my family, I am a wife and a mother and I have to be there for Andrew, Ashlee (daughter) and Xander (son).
‘When my children are grown and have their own families and I have fulfilled my role as a mother, I will be with my little Saffie again. I am so desperate to hold her close, and smell her hair and to feel her cheek on mine. My precious baby girl.’
She said Saffie played centre stage in her family and if she had to choose three words to describe her daughter, from Leyland, Lancashire, it would be ‘beautiful, captivating and kind’.
Mrs Roussos said: ‘She had a way with people that she could engage with them, whoever they were. She could and would talk to people and have their complete attention, all the time, being her gentle funny self, almost animated.
‘She had this amazing magnetic personality that drew people to her of all ages and I would just watch with wonder.’
Earlier, Mr Roussos told the court: ‘Going out with Saffie was like magic. She captured people by just looking at them and smiling. We would constantly get stopped on the street.
‘I try and picture what she would look like now, what she would be doing, what career she would choose to the wedding dress she would pick to the adult Saffie would be.
‘How can I stand here and explain to you all in words what a beautiful little girl she is? It’s like the best artists got together and drew her from top to toe with a heart so pure, so innocent, she melted people’s hearts.’
Joining him in the courtroom, Saffie’s sister Ashlee Bromwich, said: ‘She would always be dancing, singing, spinning, doing acrobats. She was a born entertainer and I knew that for the rest of her life she would live to put a smile on everybody’s face, even a stranger.
‘Our family will never be the same. Each and everyone of us remains a spare part watching the world pass us by. I have lost the ability to feel such emotions other than grief and anger. It’s like falling down a never-ending empty pit of sadness.
‘The things that once brought us joy don’t. How can we feel joy in our lives without Saffie? She was our joy.
‘Saffie didn’t know the horrors of this world. A child should be allowed to live an innocent life. At eight years old she should have only known of love and happiness and what she could only dream to become one day. She should never have had to experience that.’
Chris Upton, headteacher of Tarleton Community Primary School, which Saffie attended, recalled the pupil’s excitement when she told her classmates after the Christmas break that she had a ticket to see her idol perform.
He said: ‘It may sound like a cliche but the world really was her oyster.’
In a video message an unnamed school friend said she missed Saffie ‘so much’ and has dreamed of waiting for her at the school gates.
The child’s mother said her daughter said she wished she had gone to the Arena with Saffie so she could get in the way and push her clear of the blast.
She added: ‘We do still go to concerts. (The girl) loves concerts, Saffie loved concerts. Why should a child not go to a concert? We’re not going to stop doing anything, nor would have Saff.
‘Saff would have kept going, of course she would have … she would have made the best, THE best entertainer in the whole entire world. She loved to sing, she loved to dance.’
The commemorative part of the hearings will conclude this week.
The public inquiry will examine the background to the attack by suicide bomber Salman Abedi and the response of the emergency services and will conclude next spring.
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