Family pay tribute to Merseyside war-photographer

The family of an award-winning Merseyside-born photojournalist Tim Hetherington, who was killed covering the Libyan civil war, today described him as a "wonderful humanitarian".

The film-maker and war-photographer was capturing images of fighting between Muammar Gaddafi's forces and Libyan rebels in Misrata when he was caught in a mortar attack in April 2011.

Speaking after an inquest into his death at Westminster Coroner's Court today, his mother Judith cried as she said:

Recording a verdict of unlawful killing, deputy Westminster coroner Dr Shirley Radcliffe said: "He was not a soldier, he was an innocent photographer."

She determined the cause of death had been a "massive haemorrhage" caused by shrapnel from mortar fire which injured his legs.