Agent tells inquest how Tunisia attack has destroyed her family
Agent Suzanne Evans heard harrowing details at an inquest yesterday of how her two sons tried unsuccessfully to save their grandfather from being gunned down in a hotel in Tunisia while on a family holiday.
The youngest of her two sons, Owen Richardson, told the inquest into the deaths of the 30 British victims of the attack at a Sousse hotel how he and his brother Joel Richardson, 19, had tried to shield their grandfather from gunman Seifeddine Rezgui.
The two boys, their grandfather Charles ‘Pat’ Evans and uncle Adrian Evans had arrived at the Imperial Mahaba hotel on their third visit only 12 hours before Rezgui went on a killing spree.
They were by the hotel’s pool when they heard gunshots and Owen, then 16, said he and his brother Joel tried to help their grandfather Charles ‘Pat’ Evans flee. They got into a lift but when it didn’t move they got out again and ran along a corridor, but their grandfather kept falling over.
In a statement read out in court, Owen said he was hugging his grandfather when he heard his brother pleading for mercy. He closed his eyes and when he opened them his grandfather had been shot in the neck. The gunman then returned and shot his grandfather again.
When Owen got up, he realised his brother and uncle were also dead. He managed to get out of the hotel and it was only when he was put into an ambulance that he realised he had been hit in the shoulder.
He was praised by the coroner presiding over the inquests for his ‘extraordinary courage’.
His mother Suzanne, who previously worked for West Midlands Co-op and Holiday Hypermarket, told the inquest the attack had destroyed her family and how ‘everyday is a colossal struggle’.
She described her father Pat as a devoted grandfather, and said her brother also spent much of his time with her sons.
Mrs Evans said her elder son Joel was on his way to fulfilling his ambition to become a Premier League referee and had been selected to officiate at an international tournament in Hungary.
She listed a number of sports halls, buildings and sporting awards which have since been named after him. She said Joel ‘achieved more in his short life than others will achieve in a lifetime’.
"The world has lost a truly shining star," she said.
A fundraising campaign has been set up by the family in memory of Joel.
The charity works with Victim Support to help families who have become victims of traumatic bereavement.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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