Judge rejects tour firm negligence claim
In an investigation into the June 2015 terror attack in Sousse, Tunisia, which saw dozens of tourists gunned down in a holiday resort, Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith (pictured) has ruled that the 38 victims were killed unlawfully; that the police response was ‘at best shambolic and at worse cowardly’; and that tour firms with whom the victims had booked their trip, and the hotel in which the attack took place, were not negligent. The inquest, which took place in London’s Royal Courts of Justice, concluded on 28 February after seven weeks of evidence had been heard.
Families of the victims had wanted the coroner to consider the issue of whether or not neglect by TUI, the travel firm responsible for the majority of British victims, or the hotel (Riu Imperial Marhaba), had contributed to the deaths of their family members. However, the judge said that he was unable to make a decision on this aspect of the case, as the law regarding neglect does not currently cover tourists on holiday – it is applicable only in cases where a company or person has a duty of care due towards another person because of their youth, age, illness or incarceration, not to tourists who voluntarily go overseas.
A solicitor for the families whose relatives were killed in the attack said that it is preparing to start civil proceedings against TUI. The holiday firm has maintained its stance that it is ‘wholly erroneous’ to claim that it neglected its duty to its clients.