'My idyllic beach holiday ended with a man's blood up my legs - It haunts me'
Nicki Duffield and husband Andrew were enjoying a holiday at the five-star Marhaba Hotel when terrorist gunman Seifeddine Rezgui killed 38 tourists in front of them
Every day for the past 10 years, Nicki Duffield has suffered flashbacks to the Tunisia terror attacks.
The NHS worker and husband Andrew were enjoying a holiday at the five-star Marhaba Hotel in Sousse to celebrate his 56th birthday. Their lives were transformed the moment that terrorist gunman Seifeddine Rezgui, opened fire, killing 38 tourists, including 30 Brits. Nicki's leg was spattered with the blood of one victim as they got up from their sunbeds and ran for their lives. As the families of the British victims mark the 10th anniversary of the atrocity today, Nicki and Andrew, from Watton, Norfolk, will have their own private moment together to remember those who died.
Nicki has been diagnosed with severe PTSD, and still has nightmares where Rezgui, armed with a Kalashnikov assault rifle and grenades, is running amok. Her distinctive beach towel, with a flip flop motif, was used to cover the body of one of the victims. Video footage of the aftermath also shows a victim covered with Andrew's Union flag towel.
The images were a terrible reminder of how close they both came to death that day. Nicki is still haunted by the horror of the massacre; she sees a lorry and thinks that Rezgui is driving. She suffers daily trauma despite intensive therapy. The mum-of-three, 60, a NHS ward clerk, saw Rezgui doing a recce of the hotel, dressed as a member of staff, just days before he returned on his murder mission.
She said: "I still think of it every day. You just never forget it, not a moment of it. I was by the five-star Marhaba hotel facing the beach so I literally saw everything from my vantage point, I just watched it all unfold.
"We were on sun beds, and an ex-military man told us to run because he knew it was gunfire. I remember seeing people scrambling over each other, literally climbing up over each other from the beach to get to the hotel grounds.
"We ran up through the hotel. I came home with a man's blood up my legs, he was just shot behind me, and I can see all of that as if it was yesterday. After he was killed, I was out of puff due to asthma, I could not breathe, I told my husband to go ahead without me. But he would not leave me."
They ended up huddled inside the hotel gardeners' shed at first, with the sound of a police helicopter overhead and gunfire and hand grenades exploding just outside the door. "It felt like forever," Nicki recalls now. "Time stands still.
"It was probably a matter of minutes, less than an hour, before hotel staff told us it was safe and took us to a laundry room. We were in there with a little girl who we knew, she had been playing boules with her gran but they were split up. Then there was the woman whose husband was shot right next to us. She reached out to Andrew and said 'Can you help me? My husband is dead'.
"There were three Indian children, an elderly couple clinging on to each other terrified, and staff who barricaded the door. We could hear the gunshots outside but we could not see anything; at one point a man with a black T-shirt and stab vest told us to come out.
"I was the first behind him and I was thinking: 'What if he is he is taking us to a firing line?' He had no epaulettes, no uniform, nothing to say he was a police officer. I had seen the gunman (Rezgui) on at the hotel a couple of days before the attack doing a recce of the place.
"I recognised him as soon as I saw his picture. He came in dressed in what looked the uniform of the hotel's entertainment staff; they greeted you at breakfast. He was in the same colour vest and T shirt but looking back I realised there no badge or anything on it.
"It makes sense because he knew exactly where he was going; he went straight for the indoor pool shot people in there and then ran up to the main lobby. We had been in the hotel a week before we found the indoor pool.
"I had hoped to go back to Tunisia this year, to lay the ghosts to rest and pay my respects. But it it is still too raw, I am still having treatment for anxiety and stress; 10 years on, I still cannot face a return. "My son is in the military, he has been to Afghanistan three times, he said to me: 'You were on holiday, you were totally unprepared'. Since then, it has been like reliving a nightmare every day. I see a lorry coming towards me and I think the driver is the gunman. There is always something that reminds you."
Andrew, 66, who has just retired as a civil engineer, believes they were lucky to survive. They will be 'thinking of those who did not make it' today. "I looked after the wife of the man who died right next to us," he said.
"When we came out of the hotel, his body was there covered. You cannot imagine going through something like that. I held her hand; some people just could not do anything, they were frozen by fear. I tried to do my bit , I was trying to help them. In terms of our Government, we have had no support for the past 10 years."
In 2022, holiday giant TUI and Irwin Mitchell, the law firm representing more than 80 claimants, released a joint statement stating they had reached a settlement "without admission of liability or fault", bringing the legal action which followed the Sousse attack to an end.
Islamic State jihadist Rezgui was shot dead by police at the scene. Four militants were jailed for life for their part in the attack in 2019.
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Laughing and joking as they looked forward to spending time together in the Spanish party resort, the women were unaware that within hours, an unimaginable tragedy would strike. 16 Kirsty Maxwell plummeted from the balcony of a room on the 10th floor Credit: Solarpix 16 Apartamentos Payma, where Kirsty was staying 16 CCTV footage shows Kirsty was clearly in control of her faculties on the night she died Kirsty, herself a newlywed, would be found dead, her body lying by the pool of the Apartamentos Payma, where she was staying, after she plummeted from the balcony of a room on the 10th floor occupied by five British men. At first, it was suspected Kirsty had been murdered, but following a Spanish police investigation, the case was shelved and her death was recorded as an accident. Her grieving family, however, refuse to accept this. 'I know she didn't jump,' says Kirsty's aunt Angela Lees, 64. 'She wouldn't take her own life. "There's no way. That girl had everything to live for. She didn't sleepwalk. She had a drink in her, but she wasn't falling-about drunk.' Now, the family's eight-year fight to discover the truth is being told by a new podcast. What Happened To Kirsty Maxwell? is written, narrated and produced by true crime podcaster Naomi Channell, who decided to make the series after meeting Kirsty's family at a CrimeCon event in 2023, which they were attending to raise awareness of their campaign. 'They looked like they were broken,' Naomi remembers. 'What struck me first about the case was how nothing made sense. "I read through it all and thought, 'How has this been allowed to fall through the cracks?'' Kirsty, who was from Livingston, Scotland, was in the prime of her life when she boarded her flight to Benidorm. The previous September, she had married her long-term boyfriend Adam Maxwell. BBC documentary 'Killed Abroad' shows previously unseen footage of tragic Kirsty Maxwell asleep hours before Benidorm balcony plunge 16 Kirsty and long-term boyfriend Adam had recently got married Credit: Solarpix Blissfully happy, they were in the process of buying a new home, as well as planning to start a family. After touching down in Benidorm on April 28, 2017, Kirsty and the rest of the hen party checked into their apartment building just after 9pm, then headed out for the night. She returned, along with two friends, at 5.35am the next morning. Although she'd been drinking, CCTV footage shows she was clearly in control. She went to bed and at 6.50am, a friend who was sharing a room with her on the ninth floor took a video of her snoring. What happened next, however, remains shrouded in confusion. Having been asleep in bed, Kirsty left her room and went up to the 10th floor, where some of the hens were staying. Her family believes she went looking for their apartment, possibly in search of painkillers or contact lens solution, which she had forgotten. For whatever reason, she ended up in room 10E, barefoot and without her phone – where there were five bodybuilders from Nottingham, part of a group of more than 50 people in Spain celebrating a birthday. 16 The apartment in Benidorm where Kirsty plunged to her death 16 Kirsty was found dead by the pool of the Apartamentos Payma 16 In police interviews, the men said Kirsty walked into their apartment without speaking The men in the flat were Joseph Graham, then 32, a logistics manager with Amazon, who opened the door to Kirsty, Ricky Gammon, a 31-year-old cage fighter, Anthony Holehouse, 34, Callum Northridge, 29, and Daniel Bailey, 32. Minutes after entering, Kirsty was dead, her body splayed on the concrete by the pool. Soon after, the police phoned her husband Adam. Unable to understand what they were saying, he rang one of the hens, who told him the tragic news. 'It was devastating. It doesn't sink in. She adored Adam, they had their future mapped out,' says Kirsty's mum Denise Curry, 61. As the family reeled in shock, in Spain the police suspected foul play, and the five men from Room 10E were questioned. One of them, Joseph Graham, was arrested. In police interviews, the men said Kirsty walked into their apartment without speaking. She then apparently rushed into the bathroom and was 'acting mad, drunk or both'. 16 Ricky Gammon, a 31-year-old cage fighter, was one of the five men in the flat Credit: INTERNET 16 Joseph Graham, pictured, said Kirsty tried to climb through the bathroom window Credit: LINKEDIN Joseph told police that she attempted to climb through a small bathroom window, which led to another area of the flat, before giving up and jumping over the Juliet balcony, plunging to her death below. He allegedly screamed: 'She's jumped!' after she disappeared, and told police that he only spoke to her to ask her to leave. Meanwhile, Kirsty's mum, dad Brian, aunt Angela, Adam and his parents all booked flights to Spain. At that point they still had no idea what had happened, only that Kirsty was dead. 'Our priority was to get to Benidorm,' recalls Angela. 'We got on the plane, and we were just numb. Nobody could speak. We were left to become our own detectives Kirsty's dad Brian "It was a bank holiday weekend, and the plane was full of holiday-makers. When we arrived in Benidorm, people were singing and dancing, but we were in shock. "Then we were told what had happened. We just couldn't believe it. We were immediately suspicious that something untoward had gone on in that room.' 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'Words can't describe the pain,' says Angela. 16 Kirsty and Adam were in the process of buying a new home, as well as planning to start a family 16 Kirsty with her aunt Angela Lees To add to their heartache, Spanish newspapers published a photo of Kirsty's body where she had fallen, which a bystander had taken. Angela says they were on autopilot, hardly sleeping or eating. The family stayed in the town and used social media to try to find new witnesses, especially people who were staying in a holiday complex opposite the apartments and might have seen something. On May 5, they brought Kirsty's body home. Frustrated by the apparent lack of action, the family engaged another lawyer, Lorena Soler Bernabeu, who arranged for further forensic analysis and later attempted to recall the five men for questioning. It was reported that a judge knocked back four separate requests from the family as they tried to seek answers. Then, on July 28, four of the men broke their silence to deny any involvement in her death. The four men who attended the hearing said: 'This was a tragic accident and we categorically deny any involvement in this unfortunate incident,' The Nottingham Post reported. 'The opinion of the judge is that this was an accident. 'It goes without saying that our deepest sympathy goes out to Kirsty's family and our thoughts are with them all at this terrible time.' Deepened suspicions The Spanish court declared the investigation complete and refused. Naomi says: 'The confusion and the men's subsequent silence has only deepened suspicions. "The men's clothing was not collected and Spanish police later confirmed that Kirsty's clothes had been destroyed, saying they had been 'inspected visually' and then incinerated because they were bloodstained.' She adds: 'The family even contacted the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, asking that any biological samples or forensic evidence be preserved. "The Scottish First Minister backed the request. Sánchez never replied.' Back in the UK, the family explored every legal avenue and set up online information appeals. 'We were left to become our own detectives,' says Brian, 66. 'We spent months going through emails, pushing for meetings, hiring our own forensic experts. We had no choice.' 16 What Happened To Kirsty Maxwell? is written, narrated and produced by true crime podcaster Naomi Channell 16 Kirsty's husband Adam with Kirsty's mum and dad, Brian and Denise Curry Credit: Andy Barr Spanish police maintained the death was accidental. The lead investigator, César García, later stated that 'no sufficient evidence' pointed to criminal involvement. In 2018, a biomechanics expert reviewed the case on behalf of the family, and stated that the way Kirsty's garments were positioned was inconsistent with a fall. Her tight denim skirt and top had ridden up. The following year, after repeated requests, Kirsty's family was told some potential witnesses could be questioned via video link at Mansfield Magistrates' Court. But when the day arrived, technical problems meant a link could not be established and instead a court official took statements from the witnesses using a list of questions. 'It was a total farce,' says Brian. In September 2019, the Spanish courts decided to shelve a criminal probe. The family appealed, and in July 2020, three Spanish judges in Alicante ruled that there was no 'strong evidence' of criminality surrounding the death. In a statement, they said: 'Kirsty, affected by alcohol and after consuming the equivalent of 10 spirits the night before, appears to have left her apartment 9A and voluntarily entered 10E where the five men were. "Nothing points to the contrary. There's been such a limited amount of detail that's come from those five men Naomi 'Although it is true cocaine was found in the bathroom of apartment 10E and the dead woman's fingerprints were discovered on an interior bathroom window, it has not been possible to obtain strong evidence of specific and individualised criminality in terms of the victim's death in any of the five men investigated.' However, the What Happened To Kirsty Maxwell? podcast questions some discrepancies in the statements the men gave at the time. 16 No toxicology reports for the men exist Credit: Solarpix 16 The podcast reveals some discrepancies in the statements the men gave at the time Credit: Solarpix Naomi explains: 'One said he was asleep. Another said he didn't notice Kirsty entering. There was confusion over whether she walked in uninvited or whether she was brought in by one of the men.' There is also a suggestion that there may have been another woman with one of the men at some point during the evening. Police also found erection-enhancing pills. Furthermore, police statements seen by The Sun state that Joseph's nose was bleeding and that he admitted he had been snorting narcotics. No toxicology reports for the men exist. It isn't disputed that the men had been drinking, and this could explain some of the discrepancies in their stories. Naomi says: 'They always exercised their right to say 'no comment' outside of pre-agreed questions from their lawyer. "It's frustrating, because they have the right to say no comment, but for Kirsty's family, there's so little information. 'There's been such a limited amount of detail that's come from those five men. "It's almost like Kirsty drifts into a room, nobody says anything to her, approaches her or does anything. . . and then she jumps off the balcony.' The podcast host adds: 'Denise and Brian have been so dignified. They have always gone through official channels. "They have never messaged the men on social media, they just want answers.' Meanwhile, the family remains in legal limbo. 'It's frustrating,' says Brian. 'The authorities have ended their investigation. "They've asked us to present more evidence before they'll look at it again, but every time we suggest something, they don't agree.' 16 Will Kirsty's cause of death ever be revealed? The family hopes raising awareness might encourage new witnesses to come forward and help others in similar situations. 'The campaign for answers has consumed our life,' says Brian. 'In the process, a lot of people have approached us with similar stories and we've been able to give them help and advice.' On each anniversary of their daughter's death, Brian says he and his wife 'quietly do our own thing', visiting their daughter's favourite places, like the riverbank where she walked her dog, and remembering the happy, vibrant woman she was. 'Kirsty would light up a room with her smile and her laugh,' says Angela. 'She was such a loving, caring person. 'We just want someone to tell the truth. Kirsty walked into that room by mistake, but she didn't walk out. We owe it to her. We won't stop. Kirsty is not here, so we must be here for her.'
