Young British children could have been saved had tour operator carried out more thorough checks of hotel, judge told
Sam Jones
A brother and sister who died of carbon monoxide poisoning while on holiday in Corfu might have been saved had their tour operator carried out more thorough checks, a Greek court heard today.
Christianne Shepherd, seven, and her six-year-old brother Robert, from Wakefield in West Yorkshire, died after a faulty boiler leaked gas into the hotel bungalow where they were staying in October 2006.
Their father, Neil Shepherd, and his partner, Ruth Beatson, were left in a coma, but survived the accident.
Two Thomas Cook employees – Richard Carson, 28, and Nicola Gibson, 26 – face charges of manslaughter by negligence in relation to the children and causing bodily injury by negligence to Shepherd and Beatson.
District attorney Maria Tataki told Corfu town court that the company's employees should have realised that gas was being used in the bungalows even though the boilers were outside and the hotel manager had said there was no gas in the rooms.
Such a realisation, said Tataki, would have prompted further inspections by the tour operator which could have saved the children's lives.
She said: "I firmly believe that a tour operator like Thomas Cook should have conducted a more thorough check. It doesn't suffice to say that you trust the owners of the hotel, that you trust the managers of the hotel. No. It's not enough.
"Had the audits been more thorough the results might have been averted".
The court was told Carson was employed as a customer affairs executive, with responsibility for filling in health and safety questionnaires, while Gibson was an overseas representative.
Tataki said: "I can't understand why the person who fills in a questionnaire – a person coming from a country with vast experience in issues of gas and many more victims because of gas problems – couldn't have shown more personal attention to the facts, not only to what the manager of the hotel said.
"What was the meaning of the check after all?"
The district attorney said the employees should have recognised that there were gas boilers present at the Louis Corcyra beach hotel in Gouvia, even if the boilers were in outhouses adjacent to the bungalows.
But the court heard that Carson had accepted the hotel manager's information that there was no gas in the rooms.
Nine Greek nationals – including the hotel manager, George Chrysikopoulos – are also on trial over the deaths.
The court heard how carbon monoxide fumes leaked into the bungalow from an outhouse next door where the "decrepit" boiler had sprung a leak; that there was no flue for the gas to be released through and it entered the bungalow through holes in the roof.
The court also heard that the thermostat, which could have helped prevent the accident, had been "wired off".
The public prosecutor, Theodore Alissandratos, told the court that Carson should at least have asked what was in the outhouses.
"He didn't perform a proper inspection of the area," he said. "The people who trust Thomas Cook with their vacation have the right to believe that they are safe.
"How can they be safe with an inspection like that? They can't be safe".
Thomas Athanasiou, also prosecuting, said that if Thomas Cook had been alerted to the presence of gas boilers they would have sent inspectors to do safety checks.
He also said that the case file should be sent to the British authorities so they could determine whether the company was following safety regulations.
"In 2006 Thomas Cook brought to Corfu 50,000 visitors and left Corfu with 49,998 visitors," he said.
"They left both Christi and Bobby behind them and this is something they should always be made to remember for it never to happen again."
Shepherd and Beatson were present in court along with the children's mother, Sharon Wood, and her husband, Paul.
A verdict is expected in the next few days.
A Thomas Cook spokesman defended the firm's employees, saying: "This accident happened because of a unique and unforeseeable set of circumstances for which neither Richard Carson nor Nicola Gibson are responsible and should not be blamed in any way".
The Guardian
