One of Stephen Lawrence’s killers had a fight in prison with one of the plotters of the Manchester Arena bomb attack, new documents have shown.
David Norris called Hashem Abedi, one of the men convicted with planning the attack on the Ariana Grande concert, a terrorist and swore at him during a confrontation at Belmarsh Prison.
Norris, 49, admitted to turning on Abedi when life ‘got too much’.
He accepted he had threatened Abedi and swore at him, but denied allegations he had used a racial slur to refer to the bomber, although the report said his comments on the issue were inconsistent.
Abedi, 28 assisted his brother Salman in planning the terrorist attack in 2017.
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Norris’s prison offender manager (POM) said he had ‘maintained to me that he did not use that word specifically but accepts he has previously used derogatory racist words (that he has regretted) when he hasn’t managed his emotions in the right way and would use terms he knew
would be hurtful’.
She added: ‘This would include racist aspects as well as other things such
as physical attributes.’
According to a parole board document, Norris said he had been raising money for the victims of Abedi’s attack.
It said: ‘He accepted it was “not his place to be dishing out justice” but he was stressed and “terrorism has always riled me, going back to the IRA“.’
The report detailed that Norris had said everyone ‘took umbrage’ with Abedi.
Norris also allegedly used a racist term against a prison officer in the segregation exercise yard.
He reportedly told the prison worker he was ‘getting ready to bang/knock the f*** out of all these m******’.
When challenged by the officer, he insisted he was being treated differently to Muslim inmates and that he could say what he wanted as he was serving a life sentence.
Other reports detailed he had thrown excrement at Black and Muslim prisoners while they were exercising and calling one inmate a ‘filthy f***ing animal’.
While accepting there was some truth to the allegations, Norris insisted the terminology was’not exactly 100% true’ and that there was ‘a lot of fighting and words being said’ in the prison at the time.
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