Tunisia Inquests: Charles Patrick Evans, Adrian Evans, and Joel Richards

It was a harrowing day for the Tunisia inquests.

Suzanne Richards and her son Owen, from Wednesbury, lost three generations of their family in the massacre in Tunisia.

Owen was on holiday with his granddad, brother, and uncle when a gunman opened fire. He was the sole survivor.

Today, an inquest heard the devastating effect their deaths had on their family.

• Video report by Charlotte Cross:

There was barely a dry eye in the room as Ms Richards read out three powerful tributes - one to her son Joel, one for her brother Adrian Evans, and one for her father, Charles Patrick Evans.

She said she and her mother Maureen had stayed at home, to allow the four men one of their regular ‘Jolly Boys Outings’, as they called them.

They had arrived at the Imperial Marhaba Hotel in Sousse late in the evening on June 25.

“Within 12 hours,” she said, “my dad, my son and my brother were killed.“This horrific event now leaves my mom and I to bring Owen up alone.

“There are three empty chairs now every Sunday for lunch - three empty chairs at Walsall FC stadium.

“We will never be a six again. We have been cut in half, and we will never get over this. We will be forever heartbroken.”

She began her tributes with a so-called ‘pen portrait’ of her father, who was best known as Pat.

She said 78-year-old Pat - a former Black Country foundryman and a magistrate in West Bromwich - had “adored” his family, and idolised his two grandsons.

“Charles Patrick Evans was a husband, dad, granddad, uncle, brother-in-law and friend - but most of all, what I would say, was that he was made of the ‘old stock’,” she said.

“A true gentleman, with old fashioned ways, he had manners and time for people, he would stop to say hello and talk and help anyone.

“He respected people and in return people respected him.

“He was loved by everyone who met him, and loved so much by his family.”

She then moved on to her brother - or Uncle Ade, as he was known to her sons.

The 49-year-old worked as gas services manager for Sandwell Council, she said, and enjoyed travelling the world with his friends and his nephews.

Sporty and active, he and Joel had recently become interested in cycling, and were planning to travel to Europe for the Tour de France upon their return from Tunisia.

She finished with a tribute to her eldest son Joel, who was just 19 when he was killed.

A popular student, he had clocked more than 1,000 hours of volunteer work, and worked to deliver school and community projects to help get young people interested in sport.

He was an aspiring referee, and had been due to travel to Hungary later in the summer to officiate at matches there.

The court also heard a written statement from Owen, read out by counsel to the inquest Samantha Leek QC.

In it, he described how he and Joel had been in the pool on the morning of June 26, while their uncle and grandfather sat on loungers on a grassy area nearby.

When they heard gunshots, they ran to get them, he said, and the four of them made their way inside - slowly, ensuring Pat could keep up.

He said he saw the gunman follow them as they made their way into the indoor pool, trying to find safety.

He said he and his grandfather dove to one side of the doors, his uncle dove to the other.

He said Joel was stood up, and he heard him shout ‘no’ or ‘don’t’. He then closed his eyes as the gunman raised his weapon, and he heard a barrage of gunshots.

Pat was injured and bleeding, he said, and he tried to tell him to stay quiet and play dead while he put pressure to his wound - but another round of shots rang out.

It wasn’t until the gunman left the room that he realised his family had been killed.

The coroner, Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith, said: ‘It seems that Owen behaved with extreme courage in trying to protect his grandfather’.”

All dedicated Walsall FC fans, Suzanne said she, her parents, her brother and sons had been incredibly close as a family.

She said the last she heard from them was a text from her brother, letting her know they were relaxing by the pool.

Now, she said, they have been left broken - a family quite literally torn in half.

“It’s the simple things we miss - Sunday lunchtime after the football games was a tradition, where all the men would sit and discuss that day’s games and tactics while mom cooked us a delicious lunch,” she said.

“This does not happen any more.

"How can four people go away on holiday, and only one come home?”