Key Arena bomb cop won't face criminal charges

DECISION REVERSED OVER POTENTIAL DISCIPLINARY

- JOHN SCHEERHOUT

A RETIRED police officer who played a key role on the night of the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing won't face criminal charges of misconduct in a public office over statements he made to the inquiry into the outrage.

But a decision that Dale Sexton won't face disciplinary action has been reversed.

Mr Sexton, then a chief inspector and the force duty officer on the night of the attack, failed to communicate with other blue light services because he became 'overburdened on the night, the second report of the public inquiry into the atrocity concluded in 2022.

The officer told the 2018 Kerslake Review, which praised his efforts that night, that he 'totally forgot about the other services' as he concentrated on the fear that a second terrorist was at large.

He was promoted to superintendent and later handed a Queens Police Medal for his efforts.

But he told the later public inquiry it had been a 'deliberate decision' not to inform the other services and he had initiated Operation Plato, the plan to deal with a continuing marauding terror attack, as he wanted to avoid first responders abandoning casualties, although this rationale was not recorded in any document.