A prankster who dressed up as the Manchester Arena bomber Salman Abedi for Halloween now faces being locked up.
Pictures posted by David Wootton show him wearing an Arabic-style headdress, with the slogan ‘I love Ariana Grande’ on his T-shirt, and carrying a rucksack with ‘Boom’ and ‘TNT’ written on the front.
The disturbing Halloween costume which was captioned ‘bet I get kicked out of the party’ caused fury on social media, with his friends slamming the stunt.
Undeterred, he later posted: ‘Only went and won the best costume.’
The 40-year-old was arrested and last week pleaded guilty to sending an offensive message online and faces up to two years in jail when he is sentenced on October 3.
Abedi killed 22 people – some of them children – as well as himself when he detonated his device in the foyer of Manchester Arena at the end of an Ariana Grande concert in May 2017.
Wootton entered his plea at Harrogate magistrates’ court but his case was transferred to York crown court.
He has since changed his name and moved to London.
Andrea Hill, 40, who gave evidence against him, said: ‘He’s a scumbag who deserves everything coming to him,’ according to The Sun.
‘I hope his guilty plea gives the families of the arena bombing victims some comfort that justice will be done.’
In a statement at the time, the force said: ‘North Yorkshire Police can confirm that a man has been arrested after the force received complaints about a man wearing an offensive costume on social media, depicting murderer, Salman Abedi who killed 22 people at Manchester Arena.
‘The man, who is aged in his 40s, was arrested on 1 November on suspicion of a number of offences including using a public communication network to send offensive messages.’