‘Botched boiler’ led to deaths of two British children at Corfu hotel
An inquest heard yesterday how a member of hotel staff might have turned off a boiler safety device that led to the deaths of two British children from carbon monoxide poisoning in Corfu.
Giving evidence at an inquest into the deaths of Christianne Shepherd, aged six, and her seven-year-old brother Robert, the engineer who examined the boiler at Louis Corcyra Beach Hotel said it had been incorrectly installed.
Thomas Magner told Wakefield Coroners’ Court fumes from the boiler entered a bungalow where the children were staying with their father Neil and his partner Ruth on a Thomas Cook holiday.
Crucially, a safety device that would normally have shut down the boiler when fumes escaped had been disabled, he said.
The jury had been told that people staying in the adjacent bungalow had complained about having no hot water the day before the Shepherd family, from West Yorkshire, started feeling unwell and as a result a member of staff went to look at the boiler.
Asked by Leslie Thomas QC, for the family, whether this was most likely when the safety device was turned off, Mr Magner said: "It’s the only conclusion I came to on the evidence available to me."
Coroner David Hinchliff described the deaths in 2006 as ‘a most appalling tragedy’.
The inquest was delayed until this week due to legal proceedings in Greece, which led to the jailing of members of the hotel staff.
Thomas Cook was cleared of responsibility for the deaths and, in 2013, it was awarded damages against the hotel’s owner.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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