A British judge has handed a prison sentence to a homeless man who admitted stealing from victims of the Manchester Arena bombing while pretending to help them.

Chris Parker received worldwide renown after claiming to have helped comfort the injured and the dying after suicide bomber Salman Abedi detonated a bomb at the end of an Ariana Grande concert on May 22, killing 22 people.

Though first praised as a hero, closed-circuit TV footage showed the 33-year-old Parker stealing a purse and mobile phone from victims.

In sentencing Parker to four years and three months, Judge David Hernandez said it was hard to imagine a "more reprehensible set of circumstances."

Hernandez told Parker: "You were not the hero you pretended to be, you were just a common thief."