ALL 30 British victims of the 2015 Tunisia terror attacker, including a well known north Essex man, were "unlawfully killed", the coroner has said.

Philip Heathcote, 53, was killed at the resort where he was celebrating his 30th wedding anniversary with wife Allison.

Mr Heathcote was well-known in north Essex as he was on the umpire’s panel for the Two Counties Cricket League.

Coroner Nicholas Loraine-Smith rejected calls from lawyers for some of the dead people's relatives to rule "neglect" by travel firm TUI or the hotel owners played a role in their killing.

He said the law on neglect did not, in his view, apply to tourists who voluntarily went abroad and that better planning and actions by hotel staff may not have prevented the atrocity in which 38 people were killed by radicalised Islamic extremist Seifeddine Rezgui.

The judge said he would rule on each British victim individually, adding: "My conclusion is that all 30 were unlawfully killed."

The judge said although in general the response of the hotel staff was "disorganised and chaotic" some of them displayed "conspicuous personal courage" in their efforts to protect the guests.

He said this courage was also shown by guests at the hotel too.

Summing up the evidence heard during the inquest, Judge Loraine-Smith referred to the response of police and military, including the officer who "fainted through terror and panic", and the guard who took off his shirt to hide the fact he was an officer.

He said with the exception of two marine guards, no police entered the hotel grounds until the gunman had killed all 38 tourists.

The judge also referred to a unit that stopped off to pick up more weapons instead of going straight to the scene.

"They had everything they required to confront the gunman and could have been at the scene within minutes," he said, adding: "The delay was deliberate and unjustifiable."

Victims' relatives fought back tears as Judge Loraine-Smith ruled on each of the dead in alphabetical order, saying: "At approximately 11.45am on the morning of June 26 2015 a terrorist who was armed with a high-velocity firearm and improvised explosive devices began shooting at the tourists who were on the beach at the rear of the Riu Imperial Marhaba Hotel in Sousse in the Republic of Tunisia.

"The terrorist moved from the beach into the grounds and inside of the hotel."

Many relatives have watched the six-week inquest at the Royal Courts of Justice, with more following proceedings via videolinks set up in courts in other parts of the UK closer to their homes.

The inquest had previously heard Mr Heathcote's wife “played dead” after they were both gunned down.

as they relaxed on a 30th wedding anniversary holiday.

Mrs Heathcote said she lay still on the sand after being shot five times by Rezgui as she and Philip, relaxed on sunbeds.

Describing how she experienced “pure fear” she said that, as she lay wounded, the killer walked away, before she then heard the gunshots getting closer again.

She said: “I was fearing for my life. I stayed laying on the sand, trying not to move and draw attention to the fact that I was still alive.

“I decided my best chance of survival was to play dead.”

She added: “At the first opportunity I was asking Philip if he was all right. There was no response from Philip and I realised he had not made it.”

Mrs Heathcote was shot in the arm and abdomen and spent a month in an induced coma.

In her statement, Mrs Heathcote said she experienced a “stinging pain” after being shot in the arm.

The couple, from Felixstowe, have a son James, 28.

Mr Heathcote died from gunshot wounds to the chest and abdomen, the inquest heard.

Mrs Heathcote has made a significant recovery and has returned to work.

She is still involved with the cricket community.

Following the tragedy, tributes were paid to Mr Heathcote by Steve Isaac, results secretary for the Two Counties League and a committee member of Braintree cricket club, who described him as “a nice man, friendly, sociable”.

He also described Mrs Heathcote as “a wonderful person, helpful, sociable and bubbly” and who “believed passionately in her cricket”.

Fellow holidaymaker, retired Leicestershire Police chief superintendent Michael Perry, who was on a nearby sunbed, said he saw Rezgui on the beach brandishing a “military type of assault rifle”.

Mr Perry, whose 30-year career included firearms training, said Rezgui seemed to be firing in “a rather uncontrolled manner”, suggesting he had the gun in automatic mode, where one squeeze of the trigger would result in a hail of bullets but made aiming harder.

The Briton described “a lot of hysteria, panic, running around” as the attack unfolded, adding the hotel’s handful of unarmed security guards would not have been able to stop what happened.

Mr Perry, who was on holiday with his wife Angela, said the men seemed mostly there to stop people getting into the all-inclusive hotel without the correct wristbands, adding: “I wouldn’t have called them guards.”

The inquest, which continues, has previously heard criticism of local law enforcement, who were accused in a Tunisian investigation into the mass killing of deliberately delaying their arrival.