Gas checks 'could have saved children's lives'

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

The children were on half-term holiday with their father Neil Shepherd and his partner Ruth Beatson, who were both left in a coma as a result of the accident but survived. Mr Shepherd and Ms Beatson listened intently along with the children's mother, Sharon Wood, and her husband Paul.

Thomas Cook employees Richard Carson, 28, and Nicola Gibson, 26, face charges of manslaughter by negligence and causing bodily injury by negligence to Mr Shepherd and Ms Beatson.

District Attorney Maria Tataki told Corfu Town courthouse that the Thomas Cook employees should have realised gas was being used in the bungalows.

This would have prompted further inspections which could have saved the children's lives.

She said: "I firmly believe that a tour operator like Thomas Cook should have conducted a more thorough check.

"It doesn't suffice to say that you trust the owners of the hotel, that you trust the managers of the hotel. No. It's not enough. Had the audits been more thorough the results may have been averted."

The court was told Carson had responsibility for health and safety questionnaires, while Gibson was an overseas representative.

The court heard Carson accepted the hotel manager's claims that there was no gas in the rooms.

The prosecutors argued that he should have seen the five large gas tanks at the hotel and asked what they were.

They said a thorough audit of the bungalows would have shown that gas was being used in the rooms and pipes would have been visible.

But Thomas Cook says he was told categorically there was no gas in the rooms.

Public prosecutor Thomas Athanasiou called for the case file should be sent to the UK authorities to look into whether the company was following safety regulations.

Nine Greeks, including the manager of the Louis Corcyra Beach Hotel in Gouvia, George Chrysikopoulos, are also on trial for manslaughter over the deadly fumes that leaked from a "decrepit" and rusting boiler with no flue.

A thermostat, which could have prevented the accident, had been "wired off".

As well as the three hotel employees accused of doing nothing about the corroded and rusting boilers, architect Alexandros Gavrielidis and civil engineer Dimitros Xidias are on trial for designing and agreeing to build the outhouses without a chimney.

The prosecutors also point the finger at boiler maintenance engineers who should never have allowed the boilers to operate, a technician who signed the safety certificates, and builders accused of breaching buildingregulations.

Defence lawyers for the hotel staff argued they could not be expected to act any differently as they had no technical knowledge about gas boilers.

A Thomas Cook spokesman said: "This accident happened because of a unique and unforeseeable set of circumstances for which neither Richard Carson or Nicola Gibson are responsible and should not be blamed in any way."

The hearing continues today.