The widower of a woman killed in a mass shooting in Tunisia has told an inquest he would not have booked the holiday had travel agents told him there was a terror threat in the country.
Giving emotional evidence in person, Jim Windass told the inquests into the deaths of 30 Britons in Sousse on 26 June 2015 that his wife, Claire Windass, was shot dead on his 65th birthday.
Seifeddine Rezgui, a 23-year-old extremist, opened fire on the beach outside the Imperial Marhaba hotel, killing a total of 38 tourists, including Mrs Windass, a 54-year-old care worker and mother-of-two from Hull. Asked by counsel to the inquests Samantha Leek QC what information he received about the security situation in Tunisia or the Foreign Office (FCO) travel advice when booking the trip at a Thomson holidays shop, Windass said “none whatsoever”.
Under cross-examination by Andrew Ritchie QC, who represents 20 of the victims’ families, Windass added: “If someone had told me ‘there is a possible terrorist situation there’ I would not have booked, end of story.”
Howard Stevens QC, representing Thomson’s owner Tui, showed Windass pages from two documents sent to the couple after they booked, which contained links to travel advice pages on the FCO website. Windass told the lawyer: “Because we had already been [to the hotel] twice before and no one had mentioned anything untoward, we booked it again.”
Windass described his wife’s final moments: “I’m not medical but it was clear that something had happened [to Claire]. There was no pulse. I closed her eyes.”
Last week, the inquests heard evidence from the FCO and Tui, with which all 30 of the Britons killed had booked their holiday.
The court heard claims that Tui travel agents had reassured some of the survivors that Tunisia was 100% safe when they booked their trip to Sousse, despite travel advice warning of a threat from terrorism. It also heard that tour operators working for the firm told embassy officials they did not want “an army of police” on the streets of Tunisia because it would scare tourists, although they did accept some increase in security was required.
Lawyers representing families of 20 of the Britons who died are to accuse Tui of “practically hiding and keeping out of the limelight” FCO warnings about terrorism in Tunisia, according to papers submitted in advance of the resumption of the inquests. Last week, the inquests were shown how Tui customers were able to access the FCO advice via links on booking pages on the firm’s website.
Giving evidence, Tui representatives said they did not carry out regular security risk assessments and did not agree security audits were necessary as they were told the advice would not be changing. Earlier in the day’s proceedings, the court heard from Allison Heathcote, who played dead between two sunloungers after she had been shot in the stomach and her husband Philip had been killed.
The Heathcotes, from Felixstowe in Suffolk, were staying at the Imperial Marhaba on a holiday to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary. In a statement, Mrs Heathcote, who was later put into an induced coma for a month, described the moment she was shot.
“I became aware of being shot in my upper right arm,” she said. “It was a stinging pain. I was conscious that I had been shot elsewhere on my body but strangely I did not remember bleeding from my injuries and I was not actually aware I had been shot in my abdomen.”
She said fellow holidaymakers were screaming and running away from the scene as she shouted for help. She then heard the sounds of gunshots getting louder as she realised the gunman was returning to the beach. “I was fearing for my life,” she said. “I lay still on the sand trying not to move in an effort to not draw attention to the fact I was still alive. I realised my best chance of survival was to play dead.”
Heathcote said she was not aware at this stage if her husband had been shot. “At the first opportunity I was asking Phil if he was all right. There was no response from Phil and I realised he had not made it.”
The hearing also heard from the daughter of a couple who were three months away from their 50th wedding anniversary when they were both killed on the beach.
Fighting back tears, Donna Bradley said her parents, Ray and Angie Fisher, did not live to meet their first grandchild, who was born two days before the inquests resumed, to their son Adam and his fiancee.
A former British soldier who saw the Fishers, both from Leicester, on the beach told how he later walked past the gunman after mistaking him for a security guard. Keith Hawkes, who served with the Gurkhas during a 22-year career, said he saw Rezgui with an AK-47 assault rifle and narrowly avoided being shot himself.
In a statement read to the court, Hawkins described security officers who arrived as a mess, saying: “They looked like anyone off the street, they didn’t have any uniforms and one guy must have been 20 stone.” The inquests previously heard criticism of local law enforcement, who were accused during a Tunisian investigation into the mass killing of deliberately delaying their arrival at the scene to confront Rezgui.
The hearings will continue until the end of February.
