Inquest hears details of beach shooting terror
Mother of four identified by nail glitter
A VICTIM of the Tunisia beach massacre was identified by her glittery nail varnish after being shot in the neck and chest, an inquest has heard.
Trudy Jones, 51, from Gwent, South Wales, was a divorced single mother-of-four, who was holidaying with friends when she was killed.
An inquest at the Royal Courts of Justice in London is set to hear evidence in relation to each of the 30 British victims murdered in the atrocity.
The first victim the inquest heard details about was Ms Jones.
She had been on holiday with a number of friends including Carol Anne Powell when gunman Seifeddine Rezgui killed 38 tourists – including a number from Yorkshire – at the five-star Riu Imperial Marhaba Hotel in Sousse on June 26 2015.
On the morning of her death she had gone for breakfast with Ms Powell, before both women got ready to sunbathe.
Ms Jones made her way to beach while Ms Powell sat by the pool.
In a statement she said: “At around 12 or 12.30pm I heard the most terrible explosion. The explosion came from behind me, towards the beach area. It was the loudest noise you could ever hear.”
She added that she initially thought it was an explosion in a beach kitchen, and then crowds of people appeared, running away from the area.
“I wanted to run towards the beach to check on Trudy, but people were running towards me shouting ‘Go, go’.
“I started to run towards the hotel with the crowds of people.”
Ms Powell described getting caught up in the “chaos” and eventually deciding to play dead in a hotel car park.
She said a man picked her up and put her on his shoulders – while she continued to play dead – before carrying her to the safety of a neighbouring hotel.
“I am desperate to find out who he is because he saved me,” she added.
In the following days Ms Powell attended the mortuary where the victims’ bodies were being held.
Samantha Leek QC, counsel to the inquest, said: “She (Ms Powell) looked at photographs. She initially did not see anyone who looked like Trudy.
“A couple of hours later she saw a photograph that looked like her.”
The inquest heard that Ms Powell was then shown a body which corresponded with that picture.
Ms Leek continued: “She recognised the glittery nail varnish on her toes.”
The court was told that a postmortem examination was carried out in Tunisia and another in the UK – where Ms Jones was also confirmed through dental records.
Both gave Ms Jones’s cause of death as a single gunshot wound to the neck and chest.
Ms Powell had also been on holiday with Mark Hornby.
The inquest also heard evidence into the deaths of Janet and John Stocker, aged 63 and 74, of Sussex. The husband and wife had been sunbathing on the beach when they were gunned down.
Eyewitness Anthony Miller said they “did not stand a chance” when Yacoubi opened fire at holidaymakers. He and his wife Julie had met the couple a year earlier and become good friends. They spent much of the 2015 holiday in each other’s company.
The inquest resumes at 10am today.
I am desperate to find out who he is because he saved me. Carol Anne Powell who says she wascarried to safety by a mystery man as she played dead.