Ministers are seeking to block intelligence material from being heard at an inquest into the deaths of two men killed in the 2025 Manchester synagogue attack. Lawyers for Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood told a coroner on Thursday that disclosing the MI5 files would pose a serious risk to national security.
The inquest will examine the deaths of Melvin Cravitz, 66, and Adrian Daulby, 53, at the Heaton Park Hebrew synagogue on 2 October 2025. It will focus on attacker Jihad al-Shamie's background, what the state knew about him, synagogue security, and the response to the attack.
Barristers for the victims' families expressed concern that the emergence of MI5 material may contradict Mahmood's statement to the Commons on 13 October 2025, where she said al-Shamie was "never referred to the Prevent programme, nor was he known to counter-terrorism policing or the security services."
Alexia Durran, the chief coroner of England and Wales, is considering whether to ask the government to convert the inquest into a statutory public inquiry. This would allow the MI5 material to be heard in private, as coroner's inquests cannot legally consider evidence given in secret hearings.