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Corfu Deaths: Ex-Thomas Cook Boss 'Abhorrent'

The mother of two children who died in Corfu says an ex Thomas Cook boss made a charity donation to "salve her conscience".

Sharon Wood described attempts by Harriet Green to "gain public empathy" by donating a third of her estimated £10m bonus to charity as "abhorrent".

She made her comments at a news conference in London, nine years after Christi and Bobby Shepherd were killed by carbon monoxide.

The children died after being overcome by fumes from a faulty boiler while staying at the Louis Corcyra Hotel on Corfu in 2006.

Ms Wood described the anger she felt when learning that former CEO Ms Green was receiving a performance-related bonus worth millions.

"Given the fact it has been accepted by Thomas Cook that their handling of our families over the years has not been respectful, you could imagine how I felt reading this," Ms Wood said.

"Once again, Thomas Cook has not kept the family informed of important developments.

"Then Harriet Green decided, without consultation with our families, to announce publicly that she would donate a third of her bonus to charity.

"We only heard about her decision on Wednesday afternoon and before we had a chance to discuss it as a family.

"Yet again, it appears to us that our families are secondary, despite the fact that our children are at the heart of this.

"If there is any suggestion that we have had involvement in the decision-making process, this is simply wrong and I wish to make that clear now."

She went on: "If Harriet Green feels the need to offload some of that money to salve her conscience that is her decision to make.

"But, to try and gain public empathy by attaching her donation to the memory of my Christi and Bobby, I find abhorrent.

"Harriet Green was the CEO of Thomas Cook for two-and-a-half years.

"She claims she holds her head incredibly high for the work she did to save Thomas Cook and that she put health and safety at the centre of her agenda.

"Let us not forget that this is the CEO under whose watch Thomas Cook tried to stop the inquest from taking place ... an inquest examining health and safety issues.

"The truth is that, although the deaths did not occur while she was CEO, Harriet Green was in charge for two-and-a-half years during which time the company refused to speak to us, engage with us or apologise to us."

She added: "As for me, Harriet Green has never had the humanity or compassion to write to me as the bereaved mother of Christi and Bobby and, as far as I am aware, she makes no claim to having done this.

"I would have liked to have met with Harriet Green this week but I have been told that she is out of the country."

A series of furious letters from the children's father Neil Shepherd to Ms Green were released at the press conference.

They were released to show how the family had been made to feel "secondary" by Thomas Cook's continued failure to consult them, Ms Wood said.

In a July 2013 letter, Mr Shepherd wrote: "The only thoughts and sympathies your company has is on a piece of paper given to the media as a damage-limitation exercise!

"It states in the news bulletin that substantial damages have already been agreed to be paid to the family by the hotel, which again is something of a joke!

"Due to the fact that we do not have a bottomless pit of money and had run out, we were pushed into accepting a derisory offer due to the Greek economy and the threat of possibly receiving nothing.

"Every penny of compensation I have received has been invested for my children.

"It states that you are claiming damages for the trial costs along with compensation and refunds of affected holiday makers!"

In contrast, he points out that he got "absolutely nothing" from Thomas Cook and had to settle for a partial refund through his travel insurance.

As a grieving parent, he asks for a meeting with the company but he fired off another letter four months later because he had "not received a promised reply".

Harriet Green says that while in charge of Thomas Cook, she did write to Mr Shepherd offering a meeting but that she received no reply.

She says she has now reached out to the parents. "My regret is that we didn’t meet (the family) before the inquest and that I didn’t handle the inquest."

A statement from Thomas Cook said: "Like all holiday companies, the health and safety of our customers is paramount.

"Thomas Cook has stringent health and safety standards and we require our suppliers to have the same.

"We have thoroughly reviewed and implemented changes to the processes that were in place in 2006, and we are continuously developing and improving our health and safety practices across all areas."