By Daily Mail (World News) | Created at 2026-08-03 10:00:18 | Updated at 2026-08-03 11:46:12
1 hour ago
A British father charged over the death of his two-year-old son at a luxury hotel in Cyprus has been allowed to return home for the boy's funeral.
The 37-year-old city banker said he placed the toddler on the windowsill while waiting for the lift at the King Evelthon Hotel near Paphos believing the window was closed.
But it had been left wide open and the boy slipped and fell 33ft from the fourth storey onto the veranda below where he died on July 12.
Today the father had a restriction requiring him to remain on the Mediterranean island lifted for one month on humanitarian grounds after he put up an extra €10,000 in bail.
His passport will be returned to him on Wednesday and his name removed from the stop list for one month.
It means he can join his wife and surviving daughter, five, who returned to Britain with the son's body last Wednesday.
Dressed in a stripy blue and white shirt, black trousers and loafers, the man hugged his mother who burst into tears as they left the court room together.
He also walked over to Prosecutor Chryso Perganti on his way out and whispered 'thank you' after she did not raise an objection to his plea to return home.
The family were staying at the all-inclusive King Evelthon Beach Hotel and Resort in Chlorakas
The child fell from a fourth-floor window, which is protected by a tall, glass, sliding pane
Speaking after the hearing, the father held back tears and said: 'I'm very thankful to the judge and to the authorities for letting me go home to my wife and my daughter.
'That's all I want to do now.'
While he can travel home, the charge of causing death by a rash, reckless or dangerous act which carries a maximum sentence of four years still hangs over him.
Alexandros Alexandrou, defending, said after the five-minute hearing: 'Today he is still struggling, but he is happy with this outcome.
'He was crying because, as we all understand, he needs to go back to his family, to his house, to grieve properly and to reunite with the members of the family - not only with his wife.
'Today for him it is a good day, it is a nice day because he was thinking they would not allow him to travel back and attend the funeral.
'If this would happen it would have been a disaster for him - devastating.'
The man is expected to return to the UK on Wednesday but must come back to Cyprus on September 14. He is due to appear to enter a plea at 9am on September 17.
He had to submit €10,000 in addition to €20,000 already laid two weeks ago but the sum will be given back pending his return to Cyprus.
The man must also inform the authorities of his UK address, his phone number and his employer's address. Once he returns to the Mediterranean island his passport will be removed and his name added to the stop list once more.
Mr Alexandrou had urged Judge Froso Christodoulidou to show mercy on 'humanitarian grounds' and also as he is a guardian of the surviving child.
The two-year-old boy died after falling from the fourth-floor window while on holiday in Cyprus
A date for the funeral ceremony has not been set as relatives were awaiting the court's verdict.
There is an extradition treaty between Cyprus and the UK that authorities could pursue if he fails to attend his next hearing scheduled for September.
The father was held on remand for eight days which provoked outrage on the Mediterranean island with local press describing the detention as Cypriot police's 'cruellest act'.
A friend previously told the Mail the family is 'living through an unimaginable nightmare'.
The father had a small amount of alcohol in his blood after having between one and two drinks which forms the central part of the prosecution case, the Mail understands.
Prosecutors have suggested he was holding the child around his waist and swinging him from side to side at the hotel when the boy fell through a window.
But this is strongly denied by the family who say he momentarily placed the boy on the windowsill as there were no signs the 8ft by 4ft glass was open.
In Cyprus there are no laws requiring windows to be shut no matter their size provided they are more than 1.1metres off the ground.
There is no CCTV in the corridor where the father and the child's grandfather were waiting to go down for dinner shortly after checking in at 6pm on July 12.
The family had initially told their surviving daughter that her brother was in hospital with his father.
But when his release was blocked for eight days the banker was forced to make a heartbreaking Facetime call from his cell explaining to the girl what had happened.
The two-year-old has been described as 'deeply adored' and 'a truly special, easygoing little boy who brought so much joy to everyone around him'.
He is the third British guest to die while staying at King Evelthon Hotel in the past four years.
Ben Woods, 21, from Leigh in Greater Manchester drowned while playing volleyball in the hotel's pool in July 2022 before six-year-old Ruaridh Nairne from Inverness, Scotland drowned the following year.
Another woman reportedly died while swimming in 2024.
Yet despite a British tribunal last year finding the resort does not have a licence for its pool it appears no action has been taken.
The hotel refutes this and claims it has the correct paperwork, insisting it has been repeatedly cleared of any wrongdoing by police investigations.
Shockingly, when the Daily Mail visited the King Evelthon Hotel this week the large fourth-floor window through which the toddler fell is still open.
Management have not put any signposts warning of the danger nor locked the sliding glass shut.
