Manchester bomber Salman Abedi’s friends reveal wild youth of booze and drug-taking – and how he was nicknamed DUMBO because of his big ears
PALS of the Manchester bomber have revealed his wild youth of booze and drug-taking – and how he was nicknamed dumbo because of his big ears.
Pictures show him grinning in a bar with three student friends and on a beach in Libya, before he is thought to have been indoctrinated.
Pals described the brainy Manchester United fan as “very jolly”, as it emerged he was dubbed "Dumbo" because of his big ears.
But over the past two years he is said to have changed completely after a number of trips to Libya to visit his family.
His parents are even said to have confiscated his passport amid fears he was being radicalised.
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Last night it was claimed Abedi called his family in Tripoli 15 minutes before the attack.
His mother Samia Tabbal, 50, and father Ramadan, 51, a security officer, were born in the Libyan capital.
They emigrated to London before moving to Manchester.
Manchester-born Abedi is believed to have regularly travelled to see his family, who moved back to Tripoli following the fall of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
One friend said: “He became silent and withdrawn after a trip a couple of years ago. Before then he was a happy-go-lucky kid and always did well in school.
“We used to party together. He loved being around his friends and wasn’t a strict Muslim at all.
“He even used to drink alcohol and loved smoking weed, he never mentioned religion.
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“He was very jolly and happy. But over the past 18 months he became withdrawn and stopped hanging around with the people he used to.
“Before that he was so boisterous, always the joker.
“But as he started visiting Tripoli he was exposed to a lot of things. It’s enough to turn the purest person dark.
“And that’s what happened to a lot of young men. they were told it’s their religious obligation to step up and fight.
“When he came back he cut off from all his old friends.
“He stopped partying and he became an introvert.”
The revelations came as it emerged at least five opportunities to stop him carrying out his attack were wasted by security services.
A relative told MI5 this year he was “dangerous” and a neighbour reported suspicious activity at his home five years ago.
Two of Abedi’s worried friends also called an anti-terror hotline after he told them “being a suicide bomber was OK”.
And two community leaders also reported Abedi over his extremist views it emerged last night.
Two years ago Mohammed Shafiq, chief exec of the Ramadhan Foundation, flagged up Abedi to the authorities over his behaviour.
And Akran Ramadan also reported Abedi after he was banned from a mosque for taking issue with an anti-ISIS sermon.
One worshipper yesterday described how Abedi had a “face of hate” after the imam at Manchester Islamic Centre in Didsbury condemned terrorism. He said: “He was showing hatred.”
Abedi attended Burnage Academy for Boys and then Stretford Grammar school, near Manchester United’s Old Trafford ground.
He passed nine GCSEs before going on to study business administration at Trafford College and at the University of Salford.
One schoolfriend said: “Like any boy his age he loved a kickabout.
“He followed Manchester United and was a big supporter. He was a good-looking boy and always caught the eyes of young admirers.
“But he couldn’t have girls, or girlfriends come to his house. It wasn’t that his parents were strict, it’s just their culture.
“His parents would be very unhappy if they found out Salman was hanging around with girls.
“As he got older it never stopped him. He would never shy away from going to the boozer. Although he wasn’t a big drinker, he did drink alcohol, something that is against his religion.”
Burnage Academy confirmed he attended before moving on.
It added: “We feel the pain that Manchester feels. We stand shoulder to shoulder with our fellow Mancunians against terrorism in all forms.”
Schoolfriends say Abedi started to distance himself from old pals when he began college, mixing with older men from Manchester’s Libyan community.
One friend said: “He seemed a pretty calm guy. He hung out with a lot of wasters who weren’t really up to much.
“But suddenly I noticed he was hanging with some different guys — a lot of Libyan and Arab guys around a year or so ago.
“He started university but started shutting himself off and no longer hung around big rowdy groups, he was always by himself.
“Before, he was in big groups and happy all the time. He started ignoring old friends and wouldn’t look them in the eye.
“He lowered his gaze and looked at the ground when he walked past people. He became more studious, more religious.
“His behaviour wasn’t recognisable. I was so confused, it was so weird.
“The last time I saw him was a few days ago. I knew he was different, but had no idea the monster he had turned into.”
A friend said that while in Libya Abedi’s parents became more worried about his potential radicalisation and even seized his passport in an attempt to keep him on the straight and narrow.
They only returned it when Abedi said he wanted to visit the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia but instead he flew to Manchester.
He is also thought to have used a recent trip to Libya as cover so he could then journey to Syria.
Another schoolfriend said Abedi had only returned to Britain within the past week from the Middle East.
French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb revealed British investigators told their counterparts in Paris that Abedi had probably travelled to Syria.
He said: “Today we only know what British investigators have told us — someone of British nationality, of Libyan origin, who suddenly after a trip to Libya, then probably to Syria, becomes radicalised and decides to carry out this attack.”
Last night it emerged an ex-neighbour of Abedi reported him to cops five years ago but nothing was done.
The man said he was concerned with the number of people visiting Abedi’s home in Fallowfield, Manchester, and suspicious about sheds at the bottom of the garden.
He told The Sun yesterday: “The police put flyers through all the letterboxes about five years ago asking locals to report suspicious activity.
“There seemed to be a family in No.21 because there were men and women but there were also other folk coming and going at all hours.
“They kept themselves to themselves and they also had sheds in the back garden and no one knew what was going on in them. I called the police and said I wasn’t happy with it.
“It ticked every box on what they wanted people to look out for. The police sent me a letter a while later saying ‘Thanks for your vigilance, we’ll keep an eye on the property’ and I never heard anything else.
“That family have been there about 15 years. There were women and young kids.
“I couldn’t believe it when I heard what had happened near my old house.”
Abedi is also said to have been angered by the death last year of his friend Abdul Wahab Hafidah, 18.
The teen was run over and stabbed in Moss Side in a suspected gang killing.
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