Families of Tunisia victims to sue travel firm over their deaths

RELATIVES of a South Wales care worker killed in the Tunisian beach terror atrocity are among 22 families suing tour operator TUI, after an inquest found 30 British tourists were “unlawfully killed”.

The inquest heard that the owners and staff at the Tunisian hotel where it happened could have done nothing before the attack that would have done more than “possibly make a difference”.

Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith yesterday said he could not include “neglect” by holiday firm TUI or the owners of the five-star Riu Imperial Marhaba Hotel when ruling on the deaths of the British victims of Seifeddine Rezgui.

The radicalised mass-killer slaughtered 38 people during the attack in Sousse 18 months ago.

The families of the dead, many of whom wept as the conclusions were read out, criticised security at the hotel, which only had a handful of unarmed guards on duty when Rezgui struck, armed with an AK-47 assault rifle and home-made grenades.

Legal firm Irwin Mitchell – which represented the families of 22 victims during the inquest, including the family of Trudy Jones from Blackwood – said it was now preparing to launch civil proceedings against TUI for damages.

Clive Garner, head of Irwin Mitchell’s international personal injury team, said: “During the past seven weeks both the Coroner and the families who we represent have heard shocking evidence about the level of security precautions at the Imperial Marhaba hotel at the time of the terrorist attack.”

He added: “It is now crucial that the whole travel industry learns from what happened in Sousse to reduce the risk of similar catastrophic incidents in future. Our clients are very grateful to the coroner for his careful and sensitive handling of the inquest proceedings. They feel he has been fair and thorough in his investigation and appreciate how he has tried to ensure throughout that the families come first.

“On behalf of our clients who lost members of their families and those who suffered injuries in this terrible incident, we will now be preparing to commence civil proceedings against TUI for damages.”

Popular care worker Trudy Jones was one of 30 British people killed when gunman Rezgui began firing at tourists on a beach in June 2015.

Gas engineer Mathew James, 31, from Pontypridd, was hailed as a hero in the same attack for taking a bullet for his bride-to-be Saera Wilson.

Concluding the seven-week inquest yesterday, Judge Loraine-Smith said the Tunisian police’s response to the attack was “at best shambolic, at worst cowardly”.

He added that the law limited the circumstances in which he could rule “neglect” played a part in a death, which applied only in cases were someone had a duty of care towards someone because of their “youth, age, illness or incarceration”. He said: “That does not cover, it seems to me, tourists who have voluntarily agreed to go on