Crash tragedy victim leaves Oxfam £41m

A LEEDS-BORN businessman who died alongside his family in a helicopter crash has left a reported £41 million fortune to scandalhit charity Oxfam.

The organisation said was “extremely grateful” for the bequest from Richard Cousins, who died alongside his fiancée, his two sons and her daughter in the crash on New Year’s Eve in Sydney. The sum will be a welcome boost to the charity’s coffers after it reported thousands had cancelled donations in the wake of the Haiti sex scandal.

Oxfam was unable to confirm the sum donated, but reported it to be £41 million.

A “common tragedy clause” was drawn up in his will a year before the accident stating that the charity would be the main beneficiary it if he was killed alongside his sons, the newspaper said. An Oxfam spokesman said: “We are extremely grateful for this bequest of which we have only recently been notified. We are working with the family and our board of trustees to identify how the money will be used.” The Compass Group chief executive, 58, former arts editor Emma Bowden, 48, his sons Will and Edward, 25 and 23, and her 11-year-old daughter died alongside the helicopter’s pilot when it plunged into Jerusalem Bay. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau investigated the crash, which the aircraft’s operator said happened after the pilot took a “totally inexplicable” turn some 25 miles north of the Australian city’s centre.