A family is fighting for answers almost three years since their daughter was killed by 'terrorists' in Nigeria.
Aid worker Faye Mooney was killed alongside partner Mathew Oguchi in what was described at Manchester Coroners Court today (February 25) as a 'terrorist attack'.
The 29-year-old from Manchester died on April 19, 2019, while working for the United States-based humanitarian group Mercy Corps.
At the time, police said Ms Mooney had travelled from Lagos to the northern city of Kaduna as a tourist, and had been attending a party before she and Mr Oguchi were killed.
An inquest into Ms Mooney's death is now set to take place at Manchester Coroners Court, with a pre-inquest review this afternoon discussing who should attend as 'interested persons' when the hearing takes place.
In front of Ms Mooney's parents, Paul and Geraldine, coroner Nigel Meadows told the court she had been murdered by 'terrorists'.
He read a statement which gave the position in Nigeria, that 'Jihadist extremists targeting Christian tourists' may have been responsible for the death, which took place on Good Friday in 2019.
Jonathan Landau, the family's solicitor, urged the coroner to treat the inquest in the same way as other terrorist attacks that have taken place in Britain so that the family could gain as much information as possible.
He said: "It's quite right that we treat a death abroad in the same way as we would a death in this country.
"It seems to me fanciful we would have a terrorist attack in this country, resulting in fatalities, and the inquest would not look at the motives of that group."
Mr Landau added: "The family's main preoccupation, understandably, is that questions are answered."
However, Mr Meadows insisted that while he was 'very sympathetic to the family about the answers they would like to have' he had to be 'pragmatic' about what could be achieved.
This was largely due to the difficulty the coroners court in England and Wales would have compelling witnesses from other countries to participate in the inquest.
They could include representatives from Mercy Corps, Kajuru Castle where the attack took place, and a travel operator that Ms Mooney and Mr Oguchi had been touring with.
Those parties were not in attendance at today's hearing, while the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office was also not represented.
Along with Ms Mooney's family and their legal representative, DCI Ben Cottam from Greater Manchester Police attended, along with representatives from the National Crime Agency.
Mr Meadows expressed his concern to the family that the case had taken 'such a long time' to come to the coroners court, telling Ms Mooney's parents: "I appreciate the waiting has possibly added to the difficulty of events following Faye's death.
"The pandemic has clearly been responsible for a good deal of delay."
He added: "I would like to try and obtain as much information as I can if somebody dies abroad.
"It will be perhaps the only chance for the family to learn as much as they can about the death of their loved one."
Ms Mooney attended St Catherine’s Primary School in Didsbury before Trinity Secondary School and Loreto Sixth Form College, and went on to study at University College London before completing a masters at the London School of Economics.
She undertook paid and unpaid work for a number of civil society organisations, before working as a lecturer in Iraq and eventually working with Mercy Corps in Nigeria.
In a statement issued following her death, Ms Mooney's family said: "Faye was a very well-travelled person, and her loss is felt deeply by a wide network of friends and family stretching across the globe.
"She loved life, loved people and, despite being allergic to pets, she loved animals too.
"She was very funny and had a mischievous, infectious laugh, and with an insatiable appetite for good conversation, to be in her company was always an absolute pleasure.
“As her family, we could never have enough of Faye. We held precious her all-too-infrequent visits to the UK, and we treasured every moment."
