A homeless man hailed a hero following the Manchester Arena bombing has been jailed for stealing items from victims of the terror attack. 

Chris Parker was jailed at Manchester Crown Court for four years and three months on Tuesday. 

Earlier this month he pleaded guilty to stealing a purse and a mobile. 

Members of the public raised more than £50,000 for the rough sleeper after he described running towards the scene of the carnage to help. 

The 33-year-old said it was “gut instinct” to aid victims when suicide bomber Salman Abedi detonated a device at an Ariana Grande concert on May 22, killing 22 people. 

Parker claimed to have helped a little girl and a woman in her 60s with serious leg and head injuries in the aftermath of the blast. 

“She passed away in my arms. She was in her 60s and said she had been with her family,” he said. “I haven’t stopped crying.” 

But horrific CCTV footage played in court showed Parker wandering between stricken and dying victims left bleeding on the floor. 

He repeatedly returned to Pauline Healey, whose granddaughter lay dying nearby, before leaning over her body and taking her handbag to steal her purse.

Within hours, he was using her bank card a local McDonald’s.  

Parker pleaded not guilty to five counts relating to attempted theft of a coat and bag discarded in the chaos and the use of Mrs Healey’s bank cards in the days after the attack.

Prosecutors have not pursued these charges after his guilty pleas.

The victim whose phone was stolen cannot be named for legal reasons.