Holiday Carbon Monoxide poisoning trial delayed
Almost 3 years ago a tragic accident occurred in which two children died and two adults were seriously injured. In October 2006 Neil Shepherd, 38, had taken his partner Ruth Beatson, 28, and his two children Christianne and Robert Shepherd, […]
Almost 3 years ago a tragic accident occurred in which two children died and two adults were seriously injured. In October 2006 Neil Shepherd, 38, had taken his partner Ruth Beatson, 28, and his two children Christianne and Robert Shepherd, on holiday to Corfu.
Over the half term break the family had been staying at the four-star Corcyra beach hotel in Gouvia, Corfu. Sadly what should have been a relaxing and refreshing break turned out to be a fatal trip.
On 26th October 2006 a cleaner discovered the bodies of the two children and the two comatose adults in their hotel room at around 11:30am. The four victims were taken to Corfu General Hospital where tests were carried out on the children’s bodies to determine a cause of death. Meanwhile Mr Shepherd and Miss Beatson were receiving emergency medical care to try and stabilise their condition and hopefully awaken them from their comas. Test results showed that Christianne, 7, and Robert, 6, had probably died 7 ½ hours before they were found and that there were very high levels of Carbon monoxide in their blood. An “investigation by an independent gas engineer concluded that a trip switch in the boiler had short circuited” and was probably the source of the carbon monoxide leak.
The children’s mother, Sharon Wood, 35, was at their home in Horbury, near Wakefield, West Yorkshire, at the time of the tragedy. Mrs Wood, a dance teacher, had remarried that summer to Paul Wood and while the children had been away she had redecorated their bedroom as a surprise for them.
Fortunately both Miss Beatson, a teacher and Mr Shepherd, a garage manager, made a full recovery from a near fatal poisoning. The bodies of “Christi” and “Bobby” were flown back to the UK and the two couples, who live only a few streets apart, demonstrated a united front in their grief as both men acted as pall bearers.
Now there is little more the families can do other than grieve for their “gorgeous” family and wait for justice to be done to their memories. After the tragedy occurred charges were brought against 12 defendants including 2 British Thomas Cook representatives. Richard Carson, 27 and Nicola Gibson, 25, face charges of manslaughter by negligence and causing bodily harm by negligence. Mr Carson is still employed by Thomas Cook as an overseas representative but Ms Gibson has returned to the UK and no longer works for the company. A Thomas Cook spokeswoman said: “We are confident that our colleagues acted properly and should not be blamed in any way. We continue to give them our full support and believe they will be vindicated by the court.” Thomas Cook also says that the property complied with the guidelines issued by the Federation of Tour Operators.
However the defendants were due to be tried on 24th June 2009, but the trial has now been delayed by 6 months. The family is extremely upset and described the setback as “extremely disrespectful” and said that “We wish for the process to come to an end, doing justice to our children’s memories so we can then try to rebuild our lives.” The trial will now be held in February of next year. It has been postponed at the request of three of the defendants, including one of the British defendants. The reason the trial has been postponed is because the lawyer representing one of the defendants has been summoned to another court at short notice.