Tunisia beach massacre inquest verdict
An inquest into the deaths of 30 Britons slaughtered while on holiday in Sousse has ruled out neglect by tour operator TUI or the hotel where they were staying.
Speaking at the conclusion of the hearing, coroner Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith said the victims, who were all on holiday with TUI brand Thomson, were not in a ‘dependent position’.
The law regarding neglect did not cover tourists on holiday, he said, it only applied where someone has a ‘duty of care’ towards someone because of their youth, age, an illness or incarceration.
He said it did not apply to tourists who voluntarily agreed to travel abroad on holiday.
The judge said the Tunisian police response to the attack by an Islamist gunman at the Rui Imperial Marhaba hotel in Sousse was ‘at best shambolic, at worst cowardly’, but he said he had not found a direct and causal link between the response of the armed officers and the deaths.
He said there were a lot of ‘what ifs’ around the case and better hotel security might simply have led to more people being killed on the beach.
The only factor that might have made a difference, he said, was if the hotel guards had been armed, but he said this was not a realistic option due to the gun laws in Tunisia.
"The simple but tragic truth in this case is that a gunman armed with a gun and grenades went to that hotel intending to kill as many tourists as he could.
"The police response could and should have been effective," he said.
The judge said that all 30 Britons, who were among 38 who died, were unlawfully killed.
It is understood that families of 22 of the Britons killed plan to take TUI to a civil court to get compensation for personal injury and deaths.
During the inquest, TUI rejected the claim it had been neglectful and said that there was insufficient evidence of any gross failure.
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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