They wanted to be together forever – and now they are
ARENA INQUIRY HEARS OF YOUNG SWEETHEARTS WHO DIED IN BLAST
THE ‘love story’ of teenage sweethearts Liam Curry and Chloe Rutherford was told by their proud families at the public inquiry into the Manchester Arena bombing atrocity yesterday.
“Chloe and Liam came into this world with nothing - but have left it with nothing but love,” added Liam’s mum.
Liam, 19, and Chloe, 17 - described as ‘inseparable’ - lost their lives in the terror attack, alongside 20 others.
The beautiful testimony to their young love came between tributes from the families of Georgina Callander, 18, from Lancashire, and 32-year-old Philip Tron, from Gateshead, as the commemorative hearings section of the inquiry continued.
Georgina’s father, Simon Callander, said he hopes suicide bomber Salman Abedi ‘rots in the deepest, darkest part of hell’.
“All that potential snatched away by an evil person who did not even know or care about my little girl,” he said in an emotive video tribute.
Philip Tron’s family, meanwhile, paid tribute to their ‘bonny lad’ and said: “Heaven has a new Geordie ambassador.”
The much-loved Newcastle United fan worked for a water conservation company and a video tribute delivered by his uncle, Ken Mullen, was peppered with jokes and cherished anecdotes from Philip’s childhood and life.
“He had some dislikes,” Ken said with a wry smile on the video after speaking passionately of a ‘familyloving guy with a huge personality’.
He said Philip loved dark chocolate and Jaffa Cakes, and ‘also had a habit of pinching some of the gravy before dinner’.
“A light has been switched off for all of us,” he added.
Philip was at the City Room area of the Arena with Courtney Boyle, 19, the daughter of his then partner, to collect Courtney’s younger sister, who had been at the Ariana Grande concert, when the bomb detonated. Both Philip and Courtney lost their lives.
Caroline Curry, Liam’s mum, said the couple were planning to marry - and had life ‘worked out’.
She said Chloe was Liam’s Juliet, and he was her Romeo - ‘with one difference, their families loved them both’.
Caroline said Chloe and talented cricketer Liam, who first saw each other at a cricket match, were ‘beautiful inside and out’.
“They were made for each other,” she said.
“The wedding was already being planned. Then after another two years, they would be hoping to start a family.”
Mark Rutherford, Chloe’s dad, described his daughter as ‘a real English rose’. She was growing up into a very beautiful young lady with her life ahead of her,” Mark said.
Earlier Georgina’s father, Simon, spoke of his pride at her achievements. The teenager, from Tarleton in Lancashire, was in her second year studying health and social care at Runshaw College in Leyland.
Simon said Georgina was born on April Fool’s Day, but told the inquiry that ‘ he was the fool’ for ‘not spending more time with her and telling her I loved her every day’.
“Every day I hear her laugh and it’s like she is still here,” he said.