Thomas Cook gives Corfu ‘blood money’ for children’s deaths to charity

Travel company Thomas Cook said that it had received 1.5 million pounds in 2013 as part of a settlement with the hotel owner Louis Group in connection with the deaths of Bobby and Christi Shepherd, aged 6 and 7 years, in Corfu due to a faulty boiler in 2006. The company said that the full amount received after the two children were killed by carbon monoxide poisoning during their holiday at Zante was given to charity, specifically UNICEF.

The children’s parents, Neil Shepherd and Sharon Wood, received 350,000 pounds in compensation after winning a seven-year legal battle with the company this week. The inquest found that the children were unlawfully killed and ruled that Thomas Cook had breached its duty of care. “It seems our children’s lives are worth only a fraction of Thomas Cook’s reputation,” said Wood during an interview with the Mail on Sunday.

Thomas Cook CEO P. Fankhauser released a statement:

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 – £1.5million – 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.

In 2010 three staff members of the Greek hotel were found guilty of manslaughter.