Double amputee Tony Hudgell 'stranded for three hours with no wheelchair' at Gatwick Airport after trip to Lapland; Airport apologises for distress caused

The eight-year-old, who lost both legs from being abused by his parents, was gifted to trip to Finland for his fundraising efforts and tireless campaigning to impose harsher sentences for child abusers.

On his return from Lapland Tony was left stranded at Gatwick Airport without his wheelchair for more than five hours as flights were delayed due to the adverse weather.

Tony’s adoptive other Paula (@paula_hudgell) tweeted: “Appalled with @jet2tweets @Gatwick_Airport have been stranded for 3 hrs now with no wheelchair as its still on the plane. 3am no help. Double amputee no legs as his wheelchair is his legs. Trying to get help or assistance and nothing. #gatwickairport #disabled #wheelchair.”

Jet2 replied with an apology saying: “Hi Tony, I am incredibly sorry to hear of your experience, we are currently trying to contact our team at LGW and we will look into fixing this for you.”

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Paul then replied: “Sorted now but 5 hours too late as far as a wheelchair user needs ignored. Assistance was booked in advance. Should have been sorted and when it did come out it was put on the conveyor belt and got twisted and bent. Full complaint on its way. Wheelchair cost us £6500 so cross”

A Gatwick Airport spokesperson said: "We are aware of this awful situation and apologise for the distress caused to the Hudgell family. This is unacceptable and we have picked it up as a matter of urgency with the airline, Jet2, and their ground handler, Menzies. We experienced significant disruption last night and had to close the airport for a two-hour period for safety reasons.”

A Jet2 spokesperson said: "We would like to sincerely apologise to Mr Hudgell and his family for the delay on receiving his wheelchair and for any inconvenience caused as a result. As an award-winning airline that prides itself on industry-leading customer service, we take matters such as this extremely seriously and are working with our ground handling agent to investigate how this happened.

“We can confirm that the delay was due to Gatwick Airport being temporarily closed due to snow, which meant that the baggage handler experienced severe delays offloading luggage. Unfortunately, this included Mr Hudgell’s wheelchair.

“We recognise that this should not be the experience that our customers receive when travelling with us and can confirm that we have been in touch with Ms Hudgell to offer both our sincere apologies and to do everything we can to rectify this situation.”

Former BBC Breakfast presenter and Strictly star Dan Walker, who grew up in Crawley, tweeted: “How is this possible?”

The inspirational youngster was rushed to hospital with life-changing injuries in 2014 when he was 41-days-old, following horrific abuse from his parents, Jody Simpson and Tony Smith.

The family's campaigning led to the establishment of Tony's Law, which has seen the maximum penalty for causing or allowing serious physical harm to a child to increase from ten to 14 years, while causing the death of a child has risen from 14 years to life.