Hand over ‘ blood money’, Thomas Cook bosses told
Firm won £3.5m after gas leak killed children – parents got just £350k
THOMAS Cook faced calls yesterday to give the parents of two children killed on one of its holidays some of the £3.5million in compensation it received over their deaths.
The travel firm was awarded ten times as much money as the parents, despite an inquest ruling that it had breached its duty of care to the family.
Christi Shepherd, seven, and her brother Bobby, six, were killed nearly nine years ago after carbon monoxide leaked into their Greek hotel room from a death-trap boiler.
Their parents, who were awarded £350,000 each, said yesterday they were ‘incensed’ by the size of the company’s payout.
Mother Sharon Wood said: ‘It seems our children’s lives are worth only a fraction of Thomas Cook’s reputation.’
The parents’ MP, Labour leadership candidate Mary Creagh, said the firm should give some of its compensation to the family.
The payout emerged as the firm finally offered an apology to parents Neil Shepherd, 46, and 44-year-old Mrs Wood. But they said it was ‘too little, far too late’ after bosses refused to answer questions at last week’s inquest. They have fought for years to bring
‘This is a PR ploy of the most cynical kind’
Thomas Cook to account for the leak, which nearly killed Mr Shepherd and his then fiancee Ruth Beatson, to whom he is married.
Thomas Cook was awarded £3.5million at the High Court two years ago from Louis Hotels, the owners of the Corfu bungalow where the children died. It was compensated for damage to its reputation, having to hire ‘media advisers’ to deal with the PR fallout from the tragedy and expenses for loss of profits as a result of cancelled bookings.
It also claimed for loss of revenue because staff had spent a ‘considerable proportion’ of their time dealing with the tragedy.
In contrast, Mrs Wood and her former husband – who both live in Horbury, West Yorkshire – were almost crippled financially in their quest in justice. They were left to pay for flights to Greece to attend legal proceedings and had to remortgage their homes to fund the legal process.
However, Mrs Wood said: ‘This has never been about money, but it incenses us that through all this heartache Thomas Cook quietly set about claiming its own costs.
‘We only accepted the payout because the Greek economy was in freefall and our lawyer told us if we didn’t accept we might end up with nothing. Our fight for justice was beginning to destroy our lives.’
Miss Creagh said: ‘People will be horrified that Thomas Cook has received such a huge sum out of the tragic deaths. No amount of compensation can console a parent for the loss of a child, but if Thomas Cook had a shred of decency it would start talking to the parents about providing them a proper settlement.’
The inquest at Wakefield Coroner’s Court heard a boiler had been wrongly installed and maintained and a safety device deliberately bypassed, allowing gas to seep into the bungalow with deadly results.
The children were found dead in the morning, with Mr Shepherd and his partner next to them on the brink of death. Despite having said Thomas Cook had no need to apologise because it had done nothing wrong, chief executive Peter Fankhauser has finally issued an apology to the family.
But the children’s parents, who claim they were forced to guarantee they would not sue Thomas Cook after receiving the payout in Greece, said the move was ‘cynical’.
They also revealed that the letter had been leaked to the media by the company, claiming they had yet to see it. Mrs Wood told the Mail on Sunday: ‘They had their chance in the i nquest t o apologise. To release to the media the contents of a private letter, which we’ve not even seen yet, is just another public-relations ploy of the most cynical kind.’
A Thomas Cook spokesman said: ‘We have made a number of offers to support the parents. We were requested that we don’t try to contact them.
‘We had the right to reclaim costs related to the trial. The costs incurred far exceed the amount received.’