Greek charges expected over UK children in Corfu

CORFU, Greece, Oct 30 (Reuters) A Greek prosecutor is expected to file manslaughter charges this week after two British children died in a Corfu hotel room of carbon monoxide poisoning, officials said today.

A doctor who performed autopsies on the children confirmed the cause of death as carbon monoxide, probably fumes from a gas-fired boiler outside their room that entered through a small hole in the wall at the Louis Corcyra Beach Hotel on Corfu's Gouvia Bay.

Neil Shepherd, his children Christianne, 7, and Robert, 6, and his partner Ruth Beatson, from West Yorkshire, were found in their bungalow on Thursday by a maid at the four-star beachfront hotel on the Ionian Sea island, a few days into their holiday.

The children's father and Beatson spent two days in intensive care last week before making a full recovery. Police said both had now been told of the death of the children.

''Both adults know what happened,'' Corfu Police chief Dimitris Bineris told reporters. ''The father was informed yesterday.'' ''The prosecutor will file the charges on Thursday or Friday at the latest,'' a court official on the island told Reuters. ''He is currently collecting all the evidence to complete the dossier,'' he said, without specifying who would be charged.

The mother of the two children, who flew in at the weekend, left the island with their bodies on a charter flight to Manchester today.

The doctor in charge of the autopsies, known in Greece as a medical coroner, said a large quantity of carbon monoxide had been found in the children's systems.

''The toxicological analysis performed at the University of Ioannina forensic laboratory on the blood of the two victims showed that the cause of death was carbon monoxide intoxication,'' Theodore Vougiouklakis told Reuters Television.

Final toxicological results will come in about two weeks.

Police said some technical checks on the boiler equipment still had to be performed and questioning carried out before they sent their file to the prosecutor.

''We do not want to leave any shred of doubt when the charges are filed,'' Bineris said. ''We first have to complete the dossier and still await the expert scientists' dossier.'' The hotel management said new water boilers had been installed two years ago and were checked annually.

''We are stunned by the tragic event that occurred at our hotel,'' the management said in a statement. ''We will cooperate fully with the authorities investigating this tragic incident in order to determine the exact causes.'' REUTERS PDM HS2235