Four guilty of Corfu deaths

Four people were convicted late on Tuesday by a Corfu court over the fatal carbon monoxide poisoning of two British children at a hotel on the island in 2006. The manager of the Corcyra Beach Hotel, a senior maintenance official and the hotel electrician each received seven-year prison sentences for manslaughter through negligence. They appealed their sentences and were freed pending the hearing of this appeal. A fourth man who was involved in constructing the bungalow where 7-year-old Christianne Shepherd and her 6-year-old brother Robert died, was give a two-year suspended term for violating building regulations. He also appealed. A coroner found that the children had inhaled deadly amounts of carbon monoxide that leaked into the bungalow from a faulty boiler. Seven other defendants, including two British nationals who worked for the Thomas Cook travel agency, were cleared.