Chris Parker, who rushed to help victims after an attack that killed 22 people in Manchester in May, was charged with two counts of theft.
LONDON — He is known as a homeless hero.
But the role of a man who comforted victims and helped the wounded in the deadly terrorist attack in Manchester, England, this spring was thrown into question on Wednesday as he appeared in court, charged with stealing from the people he had aided. He pleaded not guilty.
After a man detonated a bomb as fans were leaving a pop concert at Manchester Arena in May, Chris Parker and Stephen Jones, two homeless men who happened to be nearby, decided to help. Mr. Parker comforted a girl who had lost her legs and cradled a dying woman in his arms.
“It knocked me to the floor, ” Mr. Parker, who had been begging in the arena’s foyer, said of the blast at the time. “And then I got up, and instead of running away, my gut instinct was to run back and try and help.”
On Tuesday, he was charged with two counts of theft, according to the Greater Manchester Police, who gave no further details.
The British news media reported that Mr. Parker had been accused of stealing a purse from Pauline Healey, whose teenage granddaughter was killed in the attack, and a mobile phone from a young victim.
Mr. Parker, 33, asserting his innocence, told the Manchester and Salford Magistrates’ Court: “I’ ve done nothing. I’ ve done absolutely nothing. All I was doing was helping people.”
As Britain mourned after the attack — which killed 22 people, among them children in their early teens — donations began pouring in. A man from Nottingham collected more than 50,000 pounds, or $64,000, for Mr. Parker in an online fund-raiser. “Homelessness in this country is a widespread tragedy but it is absolutely unacceptable that someone who can react so heroically in such a terrifying situation should be on the streets, ” said the fund-raiser’s page on the website GoFundMe .
Because of the size of the donations, the money had not been transferred to Mr. Parker, but there were plans to manage them in a trust. “We’ re monitoring the situation closely, ” a spokesman for GoFundMe told the Guardian on Tuesday night . “We are in full control of the funds and all donors are completely protected by the GoFundMe Guarantee.”
Ariana Grande, the singer who was performing on the night of the attack, returned to Manchester along with other artists in June to raise money for a “We Love Manchester” emergency fund in support of the victims. Each victim’s family is to receive £250,000 from the fund, which amounted to £11.7 million.
