The Real Death in Paradise TV series highlights campaign to support British victims of terrorism overseas | Fieldfisher
Skip to main content
Insight

The Real Death in Paradise TV series highlights campaign to support British victims of terrorism overseas

Jill Greenfield was interviewed as part of a recent television series that looked at the plight of UK tourists and their families involved in terrorist atrocities overseas.

Jill previously worked with Trevor Lakin, the father of Jeremy Lakin who was killed in the bomb attacks in the Red Sea resort Sharm El-Sheikh, eastern Egypt in July 2005.

Jeremy was on a diving holiday with his girlfriend Annelie Clark who was also killed in one of three bomb attacks on the popular tourist destination described as an 'oasis'. 88 people were killed in the attack and more than 200 injured.

Jeremy and Annelie had partly gone to the resort to recover after being caught up in the central London suicide bomb attack just a few weeks earlier.

Following the death of his son, Trevor Lakin campaigned for better treatment of British citizens killed and injured in terrorist attacks abroad after having to spend weeks looking for his son's body, describing the situation in Egypt as 'utter chaos', with evidence and personal belongs of the victims simply swept into piles of debris at the side of the road.

He and Annelie's parents said the Egyptian authorities refused to share information about their investigations and that there had been no arrests.

They also received very little help from the British government and were forced to search in several mortuaries to eventually identify the bodies and bring them home.

It took their own investigation to discover Jeremy and Annelie had been killed in the third bomb blast near a taxi rank in the town.

Jill described as 'shocking' the discovery that while victims of the London bomb attack received government funding and support, British victims of the Sharm El-Sheikh attack received nothing.

Jill worked with Trevor to garner supports from MPs and to put forward a private members bill in the House of Lords. Finally, in 2012, legislation was introduced that means British victims of terrorism overseas received the same support as victims in the UK.

Jill said in the interview that this was only right considering those targeted by terrorists are victimised precisely because they are British.

Read about our work for victims of the London Bridge and Westminster Bridge terrorist attacks and the Finsbury Park Mosque.

Sign up to our email digest

Click to subscribe or manage your email preferences.

SUBSCRIBE