The family of two young children who died from carbon monoxide poisoning while on holiday in Corfu were not consulted by Thomas Cook about the firm’s £1.5m donation to Unicef, the family’s MP has revealed.
Thomas Cook said on Monday that it had donated the compensation it received from the Louis Corcyra Beach hotel where Bobby and Christi Shepherd, aged six and seven, died after being overcome by fumes from a faulty boiler. The firm said it had received the payment “after it was clear the hotel was responsible” and apologised to the children’s parents “for all they have gone through”.
The Wakefield Labour MP Mary Creagh, who has been supporting the family, said the parents, Neil Shepherd and Sharon Wood, had not been contacted about the donation. “Their feeling is that this once more is not about them, it’s about Thomas Cook. Thomas Cook have not contacted them about this,” she said, adding that the family had been supporting a particular children’s charity to which relatives and friends have donated in Bobby and Christi’s memory.
John McEwan, a former managing director of Thomas Cook’s international business and former chairman of the industry body Abta, said the family should have been consulted over the charitable donation. Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, McEwan said: “I think they should have consulted the family. I think they should have actually had a discussion with the family about what would be best.
“I would have liked to have seen, for example, the family being involved in where should that money go, should it be used to set up a charity on behalf of the children which would perpetuate their memory? There should have been some offering of compassion, some recognition that this has been an appalling tragedy and some care exhibited for the family.”
Thomas Cook’s chief executive, Peter Fankhauser, said on Monday that his company had handed over the full amount of compensation it had received to Unicef. “Thomas Cook has not in any way profited from our claim against the hotel owner. In late 2012 we brought a claim against the hotelier for breaching their contract to provide safe accommodation to our customers and to comply with all applicable laws, which was decided in our favour.
“Today I have made arrangements for the full amount – £1.5m – to be donated in full to Unicef, the world’s leading children’s organisation. I believe this is the right thing to do and I apologise to the family for all they have gone through.”
Fankhauser confirmed that his firm received the £1.5m, mainly in respect of legal fees, as part of a £3m settlement with Louis Group, the South African family-owned multinational that controls the Louis Corcyra hotel. The other £1.5m went to Thomas Cook’s insurers.
Wood said the family was “incensed” and they had received only about a tenth of the £3m payout. “It seems our children’s lives are worth only a fraction of Thomas Cook’s reputation,” she said.
Bobby and Christi, from Horbury, Wakefield, were found dead in a bungalow in the grounds of the hotel where they were staying with their father and his partner, now wife, Ruth, in October 2006. The couple were with Christi and Bobby when the incident took place and were found unconscious next to the children.
Last Wednesday an inquest jury reached a verdict of unlawful killing and said Thomas Cook had breached its duty of care to the family. The foreman read out a series of conclusions, including that the hotel misled Thomas Cook about its gas supply and that the holiday firm’s health and safety audit of the complex was inadequate.
Wood said after the inquest that she would always hold Thomas Cook responsible for the deaths, arguing that it “could and should have identified that lethal boiler”.
Neil Shepherd claimed the company had “hidden behind a wall of silence and refused to answer any questions for almost nine years”, while the family’s barrister, Leslie Thomas QC, said the firm should “hang its head in shame”.
