The Night of the Bomb aired at expense of families and trial, says GMP’s Ian Hopkins

The chief constable of Greater Manchester police (GMP) has accused the BBC of breaching its own guidelines and broadcasting “wholly inaccurate reporting” in a highly praised documentary about the Manchester Arena attack.

The Night of the Bomb, aired on BBC2 on the first anniversary of the attack on Tuesday, aimed only to provide “newsworthy viewing at the expense of the families, coronial process and indeed a criminal trial”, Ian Hopkins said.

In a strongly worded open letter, the chief constable accused the programme of upsetting families and survivors “at such a difficult time”. He said GMP raised concerns with the BBC before broadcast after learning that footage of the aftermath of the bomb was going to be shown, but were not allowed to view the programme before it was aired.

He said: “I fail to see any public interest in footage of such an explicit nature being aired with disregard to the feelings of those who matter most. Whether families wish to view such footage is a private matter and is not something that should be publicly aired on national television taking away any choice. Some families are left with the question: is this my loved one on the floor?”

The broadcast of this programme and the material within it “appears to breach the BBC’s editorial guidelines”, he added. This was denied by the BBC, which insisted it was “a responsible, accurate and thoughtful documentary”.

The Crown Prosecution Service and the coroner also expressed serious reservations pre-broadcast, suggested Hopkins. He claimed British Transport police also withdrew support and refused to grant authority to the BBC to use material from them, which subsequently appeared in the documentary.

Hopkins said GMP explained to the production company that the force could not take part in the programme for fear of prejudicing a future criminal trial or the inquests, which have not yet been held. Prosecutors have applied for the extradition of Hashem Abedi, the younger brother of the bomber, Salman Abedi, who is being held by militia in Libya. If the Libyans send him back to Britain, he will be put on trial for mass murder.

The BBC said the programme focused on the night of the bomb rather than the police investigation.

“I want to set the record straight about why Greater Manchester police declined to participate with the production of this documentary and to correct what we consider to be wholly inaccurate reporting,” Hopkins wrote in the letter, circulated to media on Wednesday afternoon.

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“The programme, at least by inference, wrongly suggested that GMP officers and staff were held back on the night of the attack. This is untrue and is an unwarranted attack on GMP police officers who, as the actual footage showed, acted bravely in response to this horrific attack.”

He said the documentary was “wholly misleading” by suggesting GMP had refused to cooperate with the programme – though the on-screen caption explaining the absence of any police interviews said the force had “declined” to take part.

Hopkins said: “As the lead police force, for the response and the criminal investigation, GMP have significant constraints on what we can discuss publicly … It is within this context that the reference at the end of the programme that GMP refused to cooperate, is wholly misleading and was focused only on creating journalistic drama rather than accurately portraying the constraints we have repeatedly highlighted.”

The chief constable added: “This documentary, in our view, failed to accurately depict the events of the night, and is a partial reconstruction at best. The production company no doubt will say that organisations were offered the chance to cooperate and they chose not to, but these very organisations have an overriding duty to families and the courts and so cannot cooperate with a production company whose only aim is to provide newsworthy viewing at the expense of the families, coronial process and indeed a criminal trial.”

A BBC spokesperson said: “The production company worked constructively and appropriately with Victim Support, and the sensitivities of all those involved in this tragic event were subject to careful consideration throughout the production process.

“This was a responsible, accurate and thoughtful documentary which was an important piece of public service broadcasting. The programme team took considerable care to minimise offence whilst accurately portraying the severity of events.”