Corfu Deaths: Mum Angry At Thomas Cook Bonus

The mother of two children who died on holiday has accused a former Thomas Cook (Xetra: A0MR3W - news) boss of making a donation to charity to "salve her conscience".

Christi and Bobby Shepherd were killed by carbon monoxide poisoning caused by a faulty boiler while staying at the Louis Corcyra Hotel on the Greek island of Corfu in 2006.

Sharon Wood made her comments at a news conference in London when she talked about the anger she experienced when learning that CEO Harriet Green was receiving a performance related-bonus worth millions of pounds.

"Given the fact it has been accepted by Thomas Cook that their handling of our families over the years has not been respectful, you could imagine how I felt reading this," Ms Wood said.

"Once again, Thomas Cook has not kept the family informed of important developments.

"Then Harriet Green decided, without consultation with our families, to announce publicly that she would donate a third of her bonus to charity.

"We only heard about her decision on Wednesday afternoon and before we had a chance to discuss it as a family.

"... Yet again, it appears to us that our families are secondary, despite the fact that our children are at the heart of this.

"If there is any suggestion that we have had involvement in the decision-making process, this is simply wrong and I wish to make that clear now."

She went on: "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.

"Harriet Green was the CEO of Thomas Cook for two-and-a-half years. She claims she holds her head incredibly high for the work she did to save Thomas Cook and that she put health and safety at the centre of her agenda.

"Let us not forget that this is the CEO under whose watch Thomas Cook tried to stop the inquest from taking place ... an inquest examining health and safety issues.

"The truth is that, although the deaths did not occur while she was CEO, Harriet Green was in charge for two-and-a-half years during which time the company refused to speak to us, engage with us or apologise to us."