Corfu children's death: Mother Sharon Wood criticises payment

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-32930871

Version 0 of 1.

The mother of two children killed by carbon monoxide poisoning on holiday in Corfu has criticised holiday firm Thomas Cook's former chief executive.

Sharon Wood, mother of Christi and Bobby Shepherd, said it was "abhorrent" Harriet Green had tried to use their memory to gain public sympathy.

Ms Green said on Wednesday she would donate a third of her shares to a charity chosen by the parents.

She was said to be "deeply saddened that Ms Wood feels this way".

Ms Wood said: "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."

Ms Green was not running the company at the time of the deaths but ran Thomas Cook for more than two years during which time Ms Wood said the holiday firm "refused to speak to us, engage with us or apologise to us".

Felt 'secondary'

It has been reported that Ms Green could receive about 6,000,000 shares next month (currently valued at £8.7m or $13.3m) and she said she would give a third to charity.

Ms Wood said the family had had no involvement in that decision.

A series of letters from Mr Shepherd to Ms Green have been released to show how the family have been made to feel "secondary" by Thomas Cook's continued failure to consult them, Ms Wood said.

On 21 May it was announced the family were to receive a "financial gesture of goodwill" from the travel agent.

The amount of money was not disclosed, but Mr Shepherd said it was planned to make donations to a series of charities.

Peter Fankhauser, Thomas Cook's current chief executive, recently made a public apology and admitted the firm "could have done better in the past nine years" in the way it had responded to the tragedy.

The company has donated half its £3m payout from its insurers to children's charity Unicef.

An inquest in Wakefield ruled the children were unlawfully killed.

The pair, from Horbury, near Wakefield, were on holiday with their father Neil Shepherd and his now wife, Ruth, when they were poisoned by a faulty gas boiler at the Louis Corcyra Beach Hotel in 2006.

Thomas Cook has yet to respond to a request to comment.