British father fined €3,000 in Cyprus over toddler's fatal hotel window fall
A 37-year-old British father has been fined €3,000 by a court in Paphos, avoiding a prison term after his young son died in a fall from a fourth-floor hotel window on the first day of their holiday.
A fine instead of prison
Joshua Foster, a 37-year-old British father, was fined €3,000 (£2,500) by Paphos District Court on 16 October over the death of his young son. He had pleaded guilty to causing death through a reckless, rash or dangerous act, and the court imposed a financial penalty rather than a prison term. The Independent reports that Foster works as a senior accountant at KPMG, and he is now free to return to the United Kingdom and his family. According to Phileleftheros, the fine will be deducted from the €30,000 he paid as bail under the restrictive conditions placed on him.
The fall on 12 July
The boy fell nearly 40 feet (12.1m) from a fourth-floor window of the King Evelthon Beach Hotel and Resort in Chlorakas, near Paphos, on 12 July, the first day of the family's holiday. Foster had lifted the child onto a windowsill to show him the view of a water park, and the court heard that he believed the window was closed. Prosecutor Chryso Perganti told the court the boy was pronounced dead in hospital a couple of hours after the fall, with multiple skull and bone fractures and damage to vital organs. Reports disagree on the child's age: the BBC and The Independent describe a two-year-old, while Greek-language outlets say he was three.
- Boy falls from a fourth-floor window of the King Evelthon Beach Hotel and Resort in Chlorakas
- Joshua Foster is fined €3,000 at Paphos District Court
During mitigation, Foster's lawyer Alexandros Alexandrou told the judge how brief the lapse had been.
That fraction of a second will haunt him for the rest of his life.
What the court found
Judge Froso Christodoulidou found that Foster did not act with intent to harm his son. The court also recognised the tragedy he has lived through and noted that he cooperated fully and honestly with the authorities after the death. The defence argued that the events unfolded in a moment of inattention, and that no penalty could make the tragedy something he could overcome. Alexandrou told the judge the family would carry this punishment for life.
This is punishment he and his family will carry with them for the rest of their lives.
Foster was then released to return to his family and home country.
The post-mortem and the charge
According to NewsIT, the post-mortem attributed the death to a severe craniocerebral injury and multiple injuries to vital organs caused by the fall from a height. Foster faced a charge of causing death through a reckless, rash or dangerous act, and he admitted it in court. The court's ruling was that his actions were not aimed at deliberately harming his child. Foster had been released on bail under restrictive conditions before the sentencing.
