THOMAS COOK VILLA TRAGEDY THAT LEFT TWO CHILDREN DEAD
THE double tragedy in Egypt comes 12 years after another shocking episode on a Thomas Cook holiday made headlines around the world.
Ten minutes after returning to their bungalow in Corfu following dinner, Christianne Shepherd, seven, fell ill and began to be sick.
Her brother, Robert, six, was lying on his bed, whimpering. As their father Neil went to help, he too fell unconscious, as did his partner, Ruth Beatson, then 27.
A chambermaid discovered the bodies of the two children the next morning. Mr Shepherd and his partner were rushed to hospital and placed on life support. They emerged from their comas four days later to be told Christi and Bobby were dead.
Their deaths at the Louis Corcyra Beach Hotel, in October 2006, were later found to be from carbon monoxide poisoning caused by a faulty boiler in an outhouse next door to their bungalow.
The holiday had been booked through Thomas Cook and in the years that followed, the tragedy was to become a dark stain on the holiday company’s image.
The children’s mother, Sharon Wood, was vociferous in her condemnation of the firm, accusing it of insensitivity to the family. ‘Thomas Cook put Christi and Bobby in that bungalow and I will always hold Thomas Cook responsible for their deaths,’ she said after the 2015 inquests.
The company’s chief executive issued a public apology amid mounting outrage over the way it had handled the tragedy – including seeking around £3.5million compensation for itself from the hotel owner, while the children’s grieving parents received just £350,000 each. It also announced it was donating £1.5million of its compensation to the charity Unicef (the rest went to its insurers).
Thomas Cook said in a 2015 statement that it had been ‘shocked and deeply saddened by the tragic loss’ of the children but there had been a thorough investigation by the Greek authorities which had cleared its employees of any wrongdoing.
It continued: ‘The systems which were in place in 2006, which were intended to prevent such a tragedy, have since been thoroughly revised to address the criticisms made by the jury.
‘The health and safety of our customers is of paramount importance and we continuously review and strive to improve all our procedures.’
But just as the heartbreaking episode receding from public consciousness, we have another tragedy — with the deaths of John and Susan Cooper. Of course there is no indication the latest incident has any link at all to the previous case, and Thomas Cook audited the hotel in Egypt in late July, when it received an overall score of 96 per cent.
Christi and Bobby’s deaths happened in October half-term. Luck was against the family from the start. They had booked to stay in a different hotel using Thomas Cook, but were later informed that it was closed and were offered the bungalow instead.
When they arrived, however, they were told it was not ready. Mr Shepherd told the inquest in 2015 that this was because the previous occupants had been taken to hospital, and their belongings were still inside.
No one at the time suspected carbon monoxide poisoning, and no checks were made on the boiler.
Three days into the break, Christi told her father she had been feeling unwell and Bobby said he had suffered a dizzy spell. They died that night. Back in Britain, the children’s mother heard on the radio that a tragedy involving two children had taken place.
She prayed it wasn’t Christi and Bobby. When her worst fears were confirmed, she flew out to Corfu. ‘Christi and Bobby were both dressed in someone else’s clothes and they had their shoes on the wrong feet,’ Mrs Wood told the
inquest. She recalled the difficulty she had getting on the same flight as the one repatriating her children’s bodies to the UK, being placed in a seat next to a family with children the same age as Christi and Bobby, and watching through the window as their coffins were loaded on to the plane.
Four years later, in 2010, a Greek court found two Thomas Cook employees not guilty of manslaughter by negligence on the basis that they had been misinformed by the hotel manager that there was no gas used in the bungalows.
The manager, the head of the hotel’s technical department and the hotel technician were each sentenced to seven years in prison.
At the inquest in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, a verdict of unlawful killing was reached and it was found that Thomas Cook had breached its duty of care.
Thomas Cook chief executive Peter Fankhauser later met the children’s parents after issuing the public apology and it was announced that the family would receive an undisclosed ‘ financial gesture of goodwill’ from the firm.
Following the inquest, the opera-
‘New health and safety policies’
tor provided the initial funding for the Safer Tourism Foundation, which aims to reduce the number of preventable deaths and illnesses among tourists.
The company said also that it would employ more staff on location to solve problems and spend more on thorough audits at popular resorts.
Last night the company said it had brought in comprehensive new health and safety policies.
It said the measures included not using any hotel rooms connected to fossil fuel water heaters to prevent the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning, increasing its health and safety team from five to 27, carrying out annual safety audits on all of its properties and bringing in new health and safety training for all customer service and resort staff.
In January this year, Sharon Wood wrote an article about her work as a trustee with the Safer Tourism Foundation.
‘When I lost Christi and Bobby, I lost my purpose in life, she said. ‘I didn’t know if I could live through the crippling effects of a broken heart.’
How sad that tragedy has struck a family abroad once more.