Briton due to face Cypriot court after tragic death of two-year-old son

A British father is expected to appear in court in Cyprus accused of “recklessly” causing the death of his two-year-old son, who was fatally injured falling from a fourth-floor window.

The 37-year-old, who has not been named publicly, was on the first day of a family holiday in Paphos on 12 July when the toddler died.

At 9am on Tuesday, 10 weeks after his son’s death, the distraught City executive will appear before the resort town’s district court to answer a charge that until last week he hoped would be suspended.

“My client’s disappointment is obvious,” his lawyer, Alexandros Alexandrou, told reporters after the island’s top legal official rejected an appeal to discontinue the procedure on humanitarian grounds. “He is not in a good way.”

A desperate plea for George Savvides, the attorney general of Cyprus, to intervene was the last hope of a reprieve for a family still reeling from the “unimaginable loss”.

“In these exceptional circumstances, we do not believe a continued criminal process serves the public interest,” said Alexandrou. “The focus now should be on [the family’s] welfare and recovery.”

The toddler’s father was inconsolable when he appeared in the same courtroom to be formally charged in July.

After posting €30,000 (£26,100) in bail to return to the UK to attend the toddler’s funeral in August, the father was forced under threat of extradition to return to Cyprus and surrender his passport by 14 September.

In a move that has stirred further debate over the way Cypriot authorities have handled the case, state prosecutors, addressing Paphos’ district court last week, said while Savvides recognised the father’s grief, it was a matter of “public interest” that the criminal proceedings went ahead.

If convicted, the defendant, described as a banker at one of the big four accountancy firms, faces a maximum sentence of four years in prison.

He now confronts the agonising choice of either pleading not guilty – which will open the way to a trial expected to last months – or entering a guilty plea in the hope that the court will take mitigating circumstances into account at sentencing.

In the event of a criminal trial, there could be weeks of high drama at a time when he was still mourning the loss of his son, his lawyer said, adding: “I will have to sit down, explain the procedure, explain where we stand today and what the pros and cons are.”

On the eve of the plea hearing, it remained unknown how the defendant would contest the charge of causing his son’s demise “through negligent, reckless or dangerous actions”.

The boy, who would have turned three last week, fell from the fourth-floor window at the King Evelthon hotel and resort on the Chlorakas coastline outside Paphos.

The father claims he placed him on the windowsill, – along a corridor leading to a lift that his relatives were about to use – not realising the window was ajar. The toddler then fell backwards, suffering fatal cranial injuries when he hit a veranda 10 metres (33ft) below.

In a nation so dependent on tourism, criticism has mounted as human rights defenders, media pundits and diplomats have questioned the perceived lack of compassion with which officials have approached the case.

While the letter of the law had been adhered to so assiduously by police and court officials, “no one had asked why the window did not have bars”, said a diplomat based in Nicosia, the eastern Mediterranean island’s capital.

“It’s perplexing that there’s all this emphasis on the father being a criminal and so little focus on the circumstances in which the boy died,” he added.

“Why was there even a window there and why was it open? In a country where permits to build hotels are often lax, these are questions that should not be ignored.”

In an editorial last week, the Cyprus Mail echoed that sentiment. “Why are authorities so eager to treat tragic accidents as criminal acts?” it asked, after a similar incident in which the three-year-old son of African immigrants fell to his death from the balcony of his family’s sixth-floor apartment in Nicosia.

Like the Briton, his parents were held in custody for several days although they were eventually released without charge.

With the prospect of prolonged criminal proceedings in store for the Essex-born executive, debate has intensified over the role of Cyprus’ attorney general, long regarded as one of the most controversial legacies of the island’s former status as a British colony.

In his ninth-floor office in the heart of Nicosia, the island’s leading human rights lawyer, Achilleas Demetriades, said the Briton had fallen foul of “an archaic system” that was long overdue an overhaul. Under Cyprus’s post-colonial justice system, such decisions remained entirely at the discretion of the attorney general, he said, and could not be challenged.

“Sadly, this man has fallen victim to an archaic system in which one man, the attorney general, has unfettered power which is finally under review,” said Demetriades, a candidate in the last presidential elections. “This certainly raises human rights issues.”