War photographer's death from shrapnel 'unlawful'

A British photojournalist was unlawfully killed in a mortar attack in Libya, an inquest heard today.

Tim Hetherington, 40, who was reporting on the civil war, died in hospital on April 20, 2011 after being hit by shrapnel from a mortar round believed to have been fired by Colonel Gaddafi’s forces.

His mother Judith, who was in tears after the hearing at Westminster coroners court, paid tribute to her son, describing him as “an imagemaker and a storyteller” and “a wonderful humanitarian”. The inquest heard how the Oscar-nominated film-maker and war photographer lived in South Kensington but spent much of his time in war zones reporting on conflicts.

He had travelled to Misrata with a number of other journalists five days earlier. The group — including US journalist Chris Hondros, 41, who was also killed — had already travelled close to the area with rebels that day, but decided to return to capture further images.

In a statement read to the court, fellow photographer Guy Martin, who was injured in the explosion, said Mr Hetherington started running towards them before they were hit. He wrote: “At the exact time he reached us was the moment the explosion happened.”

It was previously thought that he had been fired at from nearby. But Mrs Hetherington said US Marine Corps military officer Chris Chivers, who was a friend of her son, had uncovered new evidence to suggest that her son was hit by shrapnel from mortar coming from further away, fired by Gaddafi forces.

A postmortem found that he died after sustaining “massive injury” to his lower limbs from mortar shrapnel.

Coroner Dr Shirley Radcliffe declared it an “unlawful death”. Mr Hetherington won the World Press Photo of the Year Award in 2007. His time in Afghanistan led to his 2010 Oscar-nominated documentary Restrepo.