Father tells how children died in carbon monoxide leak

A GRIEVING father wept as he described the moment he was told his children had died from carbon monoxide poisoning in their holiday bungalow on Corfu.

Christianne Shepherd, seven, and her brother Robert, six, from Wakefield, West Yorkshire, died after a faulty boiler leaked gas into their bungalow in October 2006.

The children were on holiday with their father Neil and his partner, Ruth Beatson, who both survived, although they were left in a coma as a result of the accident.

Two Thomas Cook employees, Nicola Gibson, 26, and Richard Carson, 28, went on trial in Corfu Town yesterday charged with manslaughter by negligence and bodily harm by negligence.

Giving evidence, Mr Shepherd described the moment he woke in an Athens hospital to be told of the tragedy by his brother.

He said: "I can't really remember what was said or anything about that time, because we were still very poorly, and all I can remember is my brother informed me that I had lost my children."

Mr Shepherd said he did not think to ask for any safety information when the family arrived at the Louis Corcyra Beach Hotel in Gouvia, as he had checked that all accommodation was Corgi-registered. (Corgi was previously the Confederation for the Registration of Gas Installers.)

Mr Shepherd said: "You're going on holiday, the last thing going through your mind is not being safe. You just presume that you're safe, you presume that the tour operator has just done the checks so that you can just go away and enjoy your holiday and not have your children die."

Mr Shepherd said Robert had complained of feeling dizzy in the morning of the day of the tragedy, but later "brightened up".

It was only that evening, after the family had visited a restaurant and were going to bed, that Christianne showed signs of any illness.

"About ten minutes after we had gone to bed, Christi sat up and started being sick," he said. "I immediately got up and went over to her to help.

"When I sat up I felt dizzy but my concern was for my daughter."

Mr Shepherd broke down in tears and struggled to tell the court how he went to get a carrier bag for his daughter to vomit into, before vomiting himself and remembering nothing until he woke up in hospital days later.

He said he had since learned the cause of the children's deaths was a leak from a faulty boiler located outside the bungalow.

He said: "We know that there was a hole from out of the boiler into the room, and we know that the carbon monoxide built up and poured through the hole."

The children's mother, Sharon Wood, also travelled to Corfu for the trial, but was made to leave the courtroom during Mr Shepherd's evidence, as she will be called as a witness at a later date.

Carson, 28, and Gibson, 26, sat at the front of the court with nine other accused, all Greek, who are also charged over the deaths.

A Thomas Cook spokesman said the accident was "unique and unforeseeable" and was not the fault of Carson or Gibson.

The trial was adjourned until 17 February.