British father flies to Cyprus as he faces court over hotel death of two-year-old son

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By ANDREW JEHRING, CHIEF FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT

Published: 00:08 BST, 13 September 2026 | Updated: 00:14 BST, 13 September 2026

A British father flies to Cyprus on Monday to answer charges over the death of his two-year-old son who fell from a hotel window.

The 37-year-old banking executive is accused of causing death by a rash, reckless or dangerous act, and faces up to four years in prison if convicted. The man, his wife and their son and daughter were on holiday in Paphos when the tragedy happened.

On the first day of their stay at the King Evelthon Hotel on July 12, he placed his son on a fourth-floor windowsill while waiting for a lift, thinking the window was shut. It was not, and the toddler fell 33ft to his death.

The father was held on remand for eight days before being charged. His son is the third British guest to die at the hotel in four years, yet police have focused on the father rather than the venue, which is owned by an influential Cypriot family.

He put up £25,750 in bail, and a travel ban was lifted for one month on humanitarian grounds so he could return to the Home Counties and bury his son. That exemption ends tomorrow, when he must surrender his passport in Cyprus.

A friend of the family told The Mail on Sunday: 'He really doesn't want to leave [his wife and daughter], but he knows he has no choice.'

The reprieve let him reunite briefly with his wife, a 38-year-old health professional, who had left Cyprus with their daughter a week earlier. Their son was laid to rest at the end of August, in a service attended by more than 100 mourners.

A British father charged over the death of his two-year-old son at the King Evelthon Hotel in Cyprus will fly to the country on Monday to answer charges over the death

Their daughter started Year One last week. While the father was on remand, the couple had to explain her brother's death to her over a video call from his cell.

'Everyone was nervous about her going back to school, but it has gone smoothly and the school has been hugely supportive,' a friend said.

The family's Cypriot lawyer, Alexandros Alexandrou, has urged the island's attorney general, George Savvides, to drop the case on humanitarian grounds. The father is in court on Thursday, with his employer – one of the 'Big Four' accountancy firms – continuing to stand by him.