Manchester bombing 'hero' accused of stealing from victims

LONDON — A homeless man who was hailed a hero during a May terrorist attack at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, northern England, appeared in court Wednesday accused of stealing from two of the victims.

Chris Parker, 33, pleaded not guilty to two counts of theft at a hearing at the Manchester magistrates’ court. Parker, who regularly begged at the Manchester Arena, is accused of stealing a purse from a woman named Pauline Healey and taking a cellphone from a teenage girl who cannot be named because of court rules at the concert venue on May 22.

Healey was in a coma for several days after the bombing and her granddaughter, Sorrell Leczkowski, 14, was killed.

Parker was denied bail and will appear at the higher Manchester Crown Court on Sept. 13.

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“I’ve done nothing. I’ve done absolutely nothing. All I was doing was helping people,” Parker said after the hearing, according to the Guardian.

A GoFundMe page to help Parker with his living costs raised more than $64,000 following a social media campaign. GoFundMe told the Guardian that is was monitoring the situation and that all the people who donated were protected by its guarantee.

"Everyone was piling out, all happy and everything else. As people were coming out of the glass doors I heard a bang and within a split second I saw a white flash, then smoke and then I heard screaming,” Parker told Britain’s Press Association in the aftermath of the attack.

"It knocked me to the floor and then I got up and instead of running away my gut instinct was to run back and try and help. There was people lying on the floor everywhere.

"I saw a little girl ... she had no legs. I wrapped her in one of the merchandise T-shirts and I said 'where is your mum and daddy?' She said 'my dad is at work, my mum is up there'."

He also said he came to the aid of a woman who was seriously injured.

“She passed away in my arms. She was in her 60s and said she had been with her family. I haven’t stopped crying," he said, the Press Association reported.

Salman Abedi, 22, the suicide bomber, died at the arena. He was authorized to carry out the attack by Islamist extremists including a recruiter based in Dallas, Texas, who allegedly supported the Islamic State, Newsweek reported this week.

On Wednesday, it was announced that Noel Gallagher, formerly of the British rock super group Oasis, will headline a special concert at the Manchester Arena when it reopens on Sept 9.

The profits from the "We Are Manchester" concert will go toward creating a permanent memorial for the victims.