Crime22 September, 20262 min read
Essex Father Joshua Foster Pleads Guilty After Two-Year-Old Son Falls From King Evelthon Beach Hotel
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Joshua Foster from Essex pleaded guilty to causing his son’s death in Cyprus hotel fall. The boy fell from the fourth floor of the King Evelthon Beach Hotel in Chlorakas.
8 outlets told this the same way.
Plea in Paphos Court
Joshua Foster, from Essex, pleaded guilty to causing the death of his two-year-old son after the boy fell from a hotel window in Cyprus. Foster admitted a charge of causing death through a reckless, rash or dangerous act at a court in Paphos on Tuesday, and a further hearing was set for 5 October when the prosecutor would set out the facts and the defence would present mitigation.
The case centered on the fall from the fourth floor of the King Evelthon Beach Hotel and Resort in Chlorakas on 12 July, with Paphos District Court told in July that the boy fell through an open window when Foster was holding him around his waist and swinging him from side to side. Foster was allowed to return to the UK for his child's funeral, on condition that he flew back to Cyprus last week for the plea hearing to take place, and his lawyer Alexandros Alexandrou said a long trial would mean he was "again a victim of this tragedy."
Competing accounts of the fall
Paphos district court was told in July that the boy fell through an open window when his father was holding him around his waist and swinging him from side to side. On Tuesday, The Sun reported Foster disputes that account and says he sat his son on a window ledge while waiting for a lift, without realising the window was open.
Sky News said the circumstances of the fall remain unclear and reported that the boy's age had been reported as both two and three years old. Alexandros Alexandrou said Foster decided to plead guilty late on Monday largely to avoid a lengthy trial and to spare his family from reliving the circumstances of the boy's death through detailed evidence presented in court.
Sentence range and next steps
The charge carries a maximum sentence of four years in prison, and Alexandros Alexandrou said the court should take previous cases into account where defendants had been fined or received a suspended sentence. Sky News reported that the charge carries a maximum of four years' imprisonment and a minimum of a fine, and it said a judge can suspend a sentence if a defendant is sentenced to three years' imprisonment or less.
Alexandros Alexandrou said he would ask the court to lift travel restrictions so that Foster can return to his wife and daughter in the UK until sentencing, and he said he would appeal if Foster receives the maximum sentence. The Guardian said the case was adjourned until 5 October, when the judge ordered the man to return for sentencing, and it quoted Alexandrou saying, "[A trial] would be disturbing for him, for his family."