A British father charged over the death of his two-year-old son at a luxury hotel in Cyprus has formally urged authorities to drop the case, the Mail can reveal.
The 37-year-old city banker, who we are not naming, faces an agonising wait with a decision due from the Attorney General tomorrow on his request.
He placed the toddler on the windowsill while waiting for the lift at the King Evelthon Hotel near Paphos believing the window was closed on July 12.
But it had been left wide open and the boy slipped and fell 33ft from the fourth storey onto the veranda below where he died.
The father was arrested and held on remand for eight days before being charged with causing death by a rash, reckless or dangerous act which carries a maximum sentence of four years.
A restriction requiring him to remain on the Mediterranean island while awaiting trial was lifted last month to allow him to travel home for his boy’s funeral.
The man is due to return next week and enter a plea on Thursday, but last week his legal team submitted a formal request to Attorney General George Savvides to drop the case.
Alexandros Alexandrou argued there is no public interest in continuing the prosecution given it was a horrific accident and the family has already suffered the most serious possible loss.
A British father charged over the death of his two-year-old son at the King Evelthon Hotel in Cyprus has formally urged authorities to drop the case
He also made a humanitarian case because a prolonged criminal process would deepen the trauma for the family.
Mr Alexandrou further asked the Attorney General to take into account the wellbeing of the victim’s five-year-old sister and her need for stability, support and parental presence.
He told the Mail: ‘We have asked the Attorney General to discontinue this prosecution on public interest and humanitarian grounds.
‘In these exceptional circumstances, we do not believe a continued criminal process serves the public interest.
‘The family has already suffered an unimaginable loss, and the focus now should be on their welfare and recovery.’
A source close to the family said: ‘This continues to be deeply traumatic for the family. They have lost their child in the most horrific circumstances, and nothing can undo that.
‘This was a tragic accident, and prolonging the criminal process adds nothing but more suffering to the parents, who need to be together to support each other and their surviving child.’
The father was forced to put up an extra €10,000 in bail to return home in addition to €20,000 already laid previously.
If the Attorney General does not drop the case, he will return to the Mediterranean island and surrender his passport next week.
There is an extradition treaty between Cyprus and the UK that authorities could pursue if he fails to attend his next hearing scheduled for September.
The case has provoked outrage in Cyprus with local press describing the detention as local police’s ‘cruellest act’.
A friend previously told the Mail the family is ‘living through an unimaginable nightmare’.
The father allegedly had a small amount of alcohol in his blood after having between one and two drinks which forms the central part of the prosecution case, the Mail understands.
Prosecutors have suggested he was holding the child around his waist and swinging him from side to side at the hotel when the boy fell through a window.
But this is strongly denied by the family who say he momentarily placed the boy on the windowsill as there were no signs the 8ft by 4ft glass was open.
In Cyprus there are no laws requiring windows to be shut no matter their size provided they are more than 1.1metres off the ground.
There is no CCTV in the corridor where the father and the child’s grandfather were waiting to go down for dinner shortly after checking in at 6pm on July 12.
The family had initially told their surviving daughter that her brother was in hospital with his father.
Ruaridh Nairne, six, from Inverness, Scotland, tragically drowned in the hotel’s pool in 2023
Ben Woods, 21, from Leigh in Greater Manchester drowned while playing volleyball in the hotel’s pool in July 2022
But when his release was blocked for eight days the banker was forced to make a heartbreaking Facetime call from his cell explaining to the girl what had happened.
The two-year-old has been described as ‘deeply adored’ and ‘a truly special, easygoing little boy who brought so much joy to everyone around him’.
He is the third British guest to die while staying at King Evelthon Hotel in the past four years.
Ben Woods, 21, from Leigh in Greater Manchester drowned while playing volleyball in the hotel’s pool in July 2022, before six-year-old Ruaridh Nairne from Inverness, Scotland drowned the following year.
Another woman reportedly died while swimming in 2024.
Despite a British tribunal last year finding the resort does not have a licence for its pool it appears no action has been taken.
The hotel refutes this and claims it has the correct paperwork, insisting it has been repeatedly cleared of any wrongdoing by police investigations.
