Corfu deaths: Thomas Cook ‘breached duty of care’

Thomas Cook ‘breached its duty of care’ in the case of two children who died from carbon monoxide poisoning while on holiday with the operator in Corfu, an inquest jury ruled yesterday.

Jurors agreed with the coroner and returned a verdict of unlawful killing of Bobby and Christi Shepherd, who were aged six and seven when they died while on holiday at their hotel in October 2006.

West Yorkshire coroner David Hinchcliff said he would make a series of recommendations to the holiday industry at a later date.

The manager of the Louis Corcyra Beach Hotel and two members of staff have already been found guilty of manslaughter by negligence at a criminal trial in Greece in 2010, but eight others, including two Thomas Cook reps, were cleared.

The inquest had heard that the brother and sister had been overcome by fumes from a faulty boiler located in an outhouse next to the bungalow they were sharing with their dad Neil and his partner Ruth, who went into a comma but survived.

Speaking after today’s verdict, their mother, Sharon Wood, said she would always blame Thomas Cook for their deaths.

"It’s clear Thomas Cook should and could have identified that lethal boiler," she said.

"There will never be true justice for the deaths of my two innocent children. [The verdict] has brought this tragedy to a respectful end.

"Rest in peace our beautiful angels."

The youngsters’ dad Neil said Thomas Cook had ‘hidden behind a wall of silence’. Former chief executive Manny Fontenla-Novoa exercised his legal right not to answer questions at the inquest.

"Thomas Cook failed our family. That boiler room should have been checked," Mr Shepherd said.

West Yorkshire Police has already investigated the deaths and passed the details on to the Crown Prosecution Service. It concluded there was insufficient evidence to prosecute anyone in the UK in relation to the case.

In a statement following the verdict, Thomas Cook said: "Everyone at Thomas Cook was shocked and deeply saddened by the tragic loss of Robert and Christianne Shepherd in 2006. Thomas Cook recognises that the pain caused by this terrible accident will never go away and must be still very hard for friends and family to bear.
 
"The Greek authorities launched a thorough criminal investigation in 2010 which found three of the Louis Corcyra Beach Hotel employees guilty of manslaughter; that investigation cleared Thomas Cook’s employees of any wrong doing.  The Coroner had directed the jury that the only conclusion to reach was unlawful killing as legally it had to be consistent with the Greek verdicts.
 
"The systems which were in place in 2006, which were intended to prevent such a tragedy, have since been thoroughly revised and address the criticisms made by the jury.  Thomas Cook works with dedicated specialist external health and safety experts to audit holiday properties.  The health and safety of our customers is of paramount importance and we continuously review and strive to improve all our procedures."

A Thomas Cook spokeswoman said the operator had begun working with external health and safety experts in 2006, but she said this was not specifically because of the deaths of the Shepherd children.

When asked whether the appointment of external experts had led to more hotels installing carbon monoxide detectors, she said that was a question to be answered by the specialists, but she didn’t expect that to be the case.