JAILED terrorist Hashem Abedi has admitted his involvement in planning the Manchester Arena bombing, a public inquiry has heard.
The 23-year-old plotted the suicide attack with his brother Salman in 2017 which killed 22 people.
On October 22 Hashem was interviewed in prison where he admitted he played "a full and knowing part", the inquiry was told.
His admission was confirmed by Detective Chief Superintendent Simon Barraclough, of Greater Manchester Police, who was the senior investigating officer in the attack probe.
Paul Greaney QC, counsel to the inquiry, said to him: "You are aware, on October 22 this year, in prison serving his sentence, Hashem Abedi was interviewed by members of the inquiry legal team?"
Mr Barraclough said: "Yes, I am.
Mr Greaney said: "This will be news to others.
"You are aware, on October 22, during the course of that interview, Hashem Abedi admitted he had played a full part and a knowing part in the planning and preparation for the Arena attack?"
Mr Barraclough replied: "Yes, I think that's a fair summary."
The detective added that there is "no doubt in my mind" that the prosecution of Abedi was "entirely well founded".
Mr Greaney said: "So the point you are making is that it didn't need him to tell you that you had got it right?"
Mr Barraclough responded: "I think we had got there with the trial."
No other details of the prison interview were given.
The brother of suicide bomber Salman Abedi, 22, had pleaded not guilty earlier this year to 22 counts of murder, attempted murder and plotting to cause an explosion likely to endanger life.
He did not give evidence at the Old Bailey but provided a pre-prepared defence statement in which he denied involvement, claimed to have been "shocked" by what his brother had done and did not hold extremist views.
He went on to be convicted by a jury of all the offences and was handed 24 life sentences in August with a minimum term of 55 years before he can be considered for parole.
At the court hearing back in March families of the victims wept as jurors took less than five hours of deliberation to convict him on all counts.
They heard how Hashem was "every bit as responsible" as his older brother - and may have been the ringleader in the murderous plot.
Detective Chief Superintendent Simon Barraclough said: "If you look at these two brothers, they are not kids caught in the headlights of something they don't understand.
"These two men are the real deal, these are proper jihadis - you do not walk into a space like the Manchester Arena and kill yourself with an enormous bomb like that, taking 22 innocent lives with you, if you are not a proper jihadist.
"He was with his brother throughout the entire process of making this explosive and building this bomb, I believe he provided encouragement right up to the end.
"This was all about the sick ideology of Islamic State and this desire for martyrdom."
During his trial, the Old Bailey heard how the sadistic brothers spent months hatching the bloodbath - using bank accounts of pals to buy chemicals online.
The pair used their mum's £550-a-week benefit payments, which she continued to receive after she left the UK for Libya, to buy tools.
They flew back to Libya when friends noticed signs they had been radicalised but just days before the attack, Salman Abedi returned to Manchester.
Haunting CCTV caught him skulking around the arena at a Take That gig on a practice run.
And Hashem Abedi, a former electronics student, continued advising him by phone — and is believed to have been the last person he spoke to when he stopped at a bench on his way to the gig.
Salman later left for the nearby Arndale shopping centre where he bought batteries and a blue Kangol suitcase so he could move his bomb-making equipment to the flat he rented in Manchester city centre.
He was then caught in chilling CCTV images with a rucksack packed with thousands of nuts just 19 seconds before the deadly blast.
Salman Abedi waited for around an hour in the Manchester Arena foyer before parents and children left the gig at 10.30pm.
One minute later, he detonated the bomb as 359 people stood in the City Room - with 19 declared dead at the scene.
Among debris found after the blast were 1,675 nyloc nuts, 156 flanged nuts, 663 plain nuts and 11 fragments from Salman Abedi and his victims.
The brothers were born in Manchester to Libyan parents and booked one-way tickets the country in April 2017 after stockpiling chemicals used to make the homemade explosive.
Salman Abedi then returned to his native Manchester on May 18 to carry out the atrocity.
Hashem repeatedly denied any knowledge of his brother’s plot and suggested he had been conned into believing the bomb parts were for household use.
He was arrested by Libyan authorities soon after the attack, but an extradition bid proved difficult due to a break out of civil war.
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