Mum’s fury as Thomas Cook boss dodges questions on gas leak that killed her children
THE mother of two young children killed by carbon monoxide on holiday could not contain her anger yesterday as a former Thomas Cook boss repeatedly refused to answer questions at their inquest.
Manny Fontenla-Novoa replied ‘I decline to answer that’ when asked about the circumstances surrounding the deaths of Christi Shepherd, seven, and her brother Bobby, six.
They were poisoned by carbon monoxide from a faulty and negligently installed boiler at a four-star hotel on the Greek island of Corfu in 2006.
Mr Fontenla-Novoa was finally cajoled into a response by the family’s lawyer who invited him to ‘look my clients in the eyes’ and express sympathy. The tour operator’s 60-year-old ex-boss looked at the parents in the public gallery and said: ‘I deeply regret the incident that occurred.’
Clearly frustrated by his attitude, the children’s mother Sharon Wood, 44, told him: ‘Speak up for yourself then.’
The inquest also heard from Thomas Cook’s current group chief executive Peter Fankhauser who said he felt sorry for the family but his firm had nothing to apologise
‘They would be
alive today’
to them for. Coroner David Hinchliff had told Mr Fontenla-Novoa, Thomas Cook’s UK chief executive in 2006, he did not have to answer any questions which might incriminate him.
Mrs Wood has been visibly upset at the refusal by the tour operator’s staff to answer questions at the inquest.
The children’s father Neil Shepherd, 46, who is Mrs Wood’s ex-husband, criticised Thomas Cook for not carrying out adequate health and safety checks, telling the hearing they ‘ would be alive today’ if inspections had been done.
The youngsters died in October 2006 when carbon monoxide leaked into their bedroom at the Louis Corcyra Beach Hotel. Mr Shepherd and his partner Ruth Beatson fell into a coma but survived.
Initially, Mr Hinchliff attempted to take Mr Fontenla-Novoa through a statement he gave police in 2009.
Among other things he was asked to confirm he had said that since the children’s deaths ‘this awful tragedy has been a major priority occupying my attention and also the attention of all my senior management and the board’. He replied: ‘I decline to answer that.’
But he answered ‘it is’ when asked if it remained the case, as the statement said, that as a father he had ‘utmost sympathy for the family’.
The inquest in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, was told when Mr Fontenla- Novoa was promoted to group chief executive in 2009 the company had worldwide sales of £8.5billion. The Spanish-born boss left the firm four years ago. Leslie Thomas, QC, the family’s barrister, began by asking him: ‘I’m going to suggest to you that what was more important to Thomas Cook was profit so Thomas Cook put profit before safety.’
Mr Fontenla-Novoa said: ‘I decline to answer.’
The inquest jury has heard claims the hotel told Thomas Cook there was no gas supply at the site and safety checks carried out were done by unqualified staff. Mr Thomas asked the former boss about his refusal to answer questions concerning how the children died.
He asked: ‘Does it make you feel good?’ The witness replied: ‘I decline to answer.’ Questions about health and safety measures were likewise rebuffed.
When Mr Fankhauser took to the witness box he said: ‘I feel incredibly sorry for the family – incredibly sorry. But I don’t have to apologise.’ Asked why not, he said: ‘I feel so thoroughly, from the deepest of my heart, sorry but there’s no need to apologise because there was no wrongdoing by Thomas Cook.’
Mr Fankhauser, who has been in charge si nce l ast November, insisted his firm was lied to by people at the hotel about there being no gas heaters at the premises.
An inquest is a finding of fact hearing and not a trial where blame for a death is apportioned. For that reason there are legal rules in place to protect witnesses from incriminating themselves under oath and potentially putting themselves at risk of criminal prosecution.
The hearing continues.