The Attorney General of the Republic has ordered the prosecution of a 37-year-old father over the death of his three-year-old son, who fell from the fourth floor of a Paphos hotel while playing with him.
Following a review of the evidence, the Attorney General instructed police today to prosecute the father for causing death through a reckless, rash or dangerous act.
The father is due back before Paphos District Court shortly, as his eight-day detention order expires today. Police said they would seek strict bail conditions to keep him available for future court dates.
The prosecution decision comes after Petros Stavrou, the father’s lawyer, told philenews last week that a request for his client’s immediate release, submitted on July 14, had gone unanswered. Stavrou said at the time that the case file had been returned from the Law Office of the Republic to investigators with instructions to complete further work, and questioned why his client remained in custody if the investigation was complete.
Police say the boy fell while playing with his father in a fourth-floor corridor, where the family’s room was located, as they waited for the lift to take them to the restaurant. The boy slipped from his father’s grip and fell through an open window in front of them.
An ambulance was called from Paphos General Hospital, but paramedics found the child was not responding when they arrived. Doctors on duty at Paphos General Hospital, where he was taken, pronounced him dead. CID Paphos officers went to the scene and opened an investigation into the circumstances of the tragedy. Police arrested the father a few hours later on charges of inadequate supervision of a minor, saying he had responsibility for supervising the child at the time.
The incident happened on the afternoon of Sunday, July 12, at a hotel in the coastal area of Chlorakas, where the British family had arrived on holiday only hours earlier.
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