Brothers' six-year justice fight over mum's death

Three brothers have vowed to continue their six-year battle to hold someone accountable after their mother was crushed to death by a ship refuelling truck while on a £16,000 Caribbean cruise.

Janet Purkess, 87, died shortly after disembarking from the Saga Sapphire in Bridgetown, Barbados, in 2020.

A coroner has concluded the death was an accident, involving a lorry "with none of the usual safety features, reversing at speed in a congested roadway on the breakwater of a busy port".

Mrs Purkess' son Chris, who was described in court as an "expert investigator", said he had felt "rage" as he painstakingly uncovered details of his mother's death.

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The former prisoner governor collected hundreds of documents from authorities in Barbados which assisted the coroner's investigation.

He told the BBC: "I've gone through the whole range of emotions... just numb and then the guilt phase.

"And then comes the anger, the rage. And I'm not generally an angry sort of person.

"And as the more you get to know about it, the more the rage comes and so I've been angry for the last six years."

Mrs Purkess died following a "perfect storm" of events, coroner Rosamund Rhodes-Kemp told Portsmouth Coroner's Court on Tuesday.

The ship had made an unscheduled stop to take on supplies and passengers who disembarked on 25 January were not guided by staff or signs, she said.

Capt Stuart Horne gave a safety warning over the tannoy and then left the ship without questioning the port's lack of security arrangements, the inquest heard.

An unlicensed truck driver, Anthony Omar Walcott, reversed at speed over Mrs Purkess on the breakwater road, thinking he had run over a laundry bag, the coroner said.

His lorry had no reversing alarm and poor sight-lines, and his firm's contract with the port had expired, she added.

Ms Rhodes-Kemp previously said it was "extraordinary" that a Barbados magistrate had dismissed the criminal case against Walcott after five years on the grounds that the port was not a public road.

She said the Purkess family, which was not informed of the court decision and had no chance to appeal, had had their well-being "greatly impacted".

However, the brothers said they would continue to bring civil cases in Barbados against the port, the refuelling company and Walcott.

In a statement outside the coroner's court, Chris Purkess, from Worthing, West Sussex, said: "Our mother deserved better. British families deserve better.

"A British tourist is killed by a reversing truck in a busy port, and nobody answers to it because of a legal loophole over tarmac.

"What confidence could any family have in a system that does that?"

His brother Michael, who lives in Ahoghill, Northern Ireland, added: "At the end of the day we want someone to be accountable."

Oldest brother Richard Purkess, from Lyndhurst, said it was ironic that his mother had taken the cruise to visit a pen pal in Trinidad and only made it to the island when her body was transported there.

In a statement, Saga said: "Our deepest sympathies remain with the Purkess family over their terrible loss.

"Since this incident, the port in Bridgetown has put in place several improvements and changes.

"We share the frustrations that this matter has taken so long to come to conclusion, and we hope the outcome brings some degree of closure to the Purkess family."

Neither the Port of Barbados nor the island's police or prosecution service responded to BBC requests for comment.

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