Father pleads guilty to causing death of son in Cyprus hotel fall
A man named Foster has pleaded guilty in Cyprus to causing the death of his young son, who fell from a hotel window while his father was swinging him. His lawyer will ask the court to let him return to his family in the UK before the next hearing.
A man identified as Foster has pleaded guilty at Paphos District Court in Cyprus to causing the death of his son. The court heard in July that the boy fell through an open hotel window while his father was holding him around the waist and swinging him from side to side.
Following the child's death, Foster was permitted to return to the UK to attend the funeral, on condition that he flew back to Cyprus last week for the plea hearing.
His lawyer, Alexandros Alexandrou, told the Associated Press after Tuesday's hearing that Foster chose to plead guilty in order to avoid a lengthy trial and to spare his family from reliving their son's death in court. A prolonged trial, the lawyer said, would make the father once again a victim of the tragedy.
"The most important thing for him is to return to his family," Alexandrou said. He intends to ask the court to lift travel restrictions so his client can return to the UK to be with his wife and daughter until the next hearing.
The charge carries a maximum sentence of four years in prison, but Alexandrou argued that the court should consider previous similar cases in which defendants received fines or suspended sentences rather than imprisonment.
