Bilal Ahmed (second from left), Salman Abedi (third from left)

Manchester bomber Salman Abedi was friends with a young man who would go on to be convicted of gang rape.

Bilal Ahmed and Abedi used to hang around together as teenagers on the South Manchester estates where they lived, according to The Daily Mail.

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Ahmed is now serving a nine-year prison sentence for raping a 16-year-old girl in a hotel room alongside a group of attackers.

A photograph has emerged, showing both Abedi and Ahmed sitting together as teenagers, with a group of boys of a similar age.


Ahmed’s victim was introduced to Ahmed, Muhyadeen Osman and Mowled Yussuf, by a mutual friend in 2013.

Convicted gang rapist Bilal Ahmed (Picture: Greater Manchester Police)

Along with other youths, the trio lured the schoolgirl back to a hotel in Rusholme, inner-city Manchester.



The young men then forced the girl inside an unlocked room. before each one assaulted her.

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In a two-week trial held last year, a judge described how the men had picked on the victim as ‘easy prey’.

The three men, then all aged 20, were convicted of rape and jailed for a total of 31 years.

Salman Abedi killed 22 people on Monday night

Yesterday a source said that Abedi and Ahmed used to hang around together on the estates where they lived.

Abedi killed 22 people and injured 119 after detonating a bomb in Manchester Arena on Monday night.

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Many of those targeted were children and teenagers.

Abedi also died in the attack.