Unforgiven: BBC men’s assailant
FRANK GARDNER has always refused to forgive the man who tried to kill him and who did succeed in murdering Simon Cumbers, his cameraman.
The pair had been filming in a downat-heel neighbourhood close to the Saudi capital Riyadh when gunmen opened fire in June 2004.
The attack left Gardner, the BBC’s security correspondent, paralysed after being shot six times. But following 14 operations, he was back on BBC screens reporting, either from a wheelchair or else with the aid of calipers and a Zimmer frame.
In November 2014, Adel Al-Dhubaiti was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death. Other members of the gang are thought to have died long ago in shootouts with Saudi authorities. In an interview with The Sunday Telegraphy after the conviction, Gardner explained how he could never forgive.
“He is completely unrepentant. He has never said sorry. He is still in the mindset that he had when he attacked us. So forgiveness is not really an option. No one has apologised.”
Gardner, 54, had been offered the opportunity to meet his assailant but declined. “What am I going to get from it? The man’s soul is dead,” he said.
He expressed his anger that Dhubaiti appeared to be well looked after in his Saudi prison while awaiting the death penalty, finally delivered yesterday. “I gather he’s put on weight in jail – he has been eating quite well,” he reported.
The family of Simon Cumbers, who died aged 36, expressed “mixed feelings”. His father Robert said: “I am pleased that the murderer has had his fate decided. It won’t bring Simon back, but it puts an end to the waiting.
“On the other hand, both Bronagh and I sympathise with Dhubaiti’s parents, who must now suffer that tremendous loss that we feel.”