A British father asks a Cyprus judge to avoid prison after son's fatal hotel fall

PAPHOS, Cyprus (AP) — The lawyer for a British man who pleaded guilty to a charge of negligence in the fatal fall of his 3-year-old son from a hotel window in Cyprus appealed to a Cypriot judge on Tuesday to avoid a prison sentence, saying his loss was punishment enough.

According to evidence heard in court, the 38-year-old defendant, his son and father-in-law got ready for dinner after a day at the pool and were making their way to the elevator from their fourth-floor room at the King Evelthon hotel on July 12. The father lifted the child to check out the hotel's waterpark visible from a window when the boy somehow slipped and tumbled 12 meters (about 40 feet), falling to his death.

His lawyer, Alexandros Alexandrou, told the Paphos District Court that his client's guilty plea acknowledges a momentary lapse of judgment but that he wasn't “willfully negligent.”

“That fraction of a second will haunt him for the rest of his life,” Alexandrou told judge Froso Christodoulidou during mitigation proceedings. “This is punishment he and his family will carry with them for the rest of their lives.”

Alexandrou said the defendant — who prosecutors and the defense haven’t named throughout the proceedings — didn’t recall the circumstances of the fall because it happened so quickly. But he and his father-in-law had told investigators that they thought the glass window pane was shut.

The defendant, sitting in the dock, was visibly distraught and constantly wiped tears from his eyes as he heard the translator next to him recount the details. His parents were also sitting in the rear of the courtroom, his mother's eyes red from weeping.

Addressing the judge, Alexandrou said he wasn't arguing that the defendant be absolved of responsibility but that the court must consider “what kind of mistake was made at that point in time.”

“Justice can be served without imposing the utmost severity in sentencing,” the lawyer said.

Prosecutor Chryso Perganti said that the boy was pronounced dead in hospital a couple of hours after his fall, suffering multiple skull and bone fractures and damage to his vital organs.

He also said a blood sample taken from the defendant roughly six hours after the boy's fall showed that he had consumed alcohol but was under the legal limit. However, experts estimated that this blood alcohol level at the time of the fall may have been more than twice the legal limit.

Alexandrou countered that the defendant's alcohol consumption had no bearing on the case because there's nothing to suggest that he was impaired at the time of the incident.

The lawyer told the judge that his client, an auditor at a major U.K. firm, risks losing his job because of the disciplinary hearing and the prison sentence. He also said even if the sentence is suspended, the man could lose his license to practice.

The charge carries a maximum of four years’ imprisonment and a minimum of a fine. Imprisonment can be suspended if the sentence is three years’ imprisonment or less.

Judge Christodoulidou said she would rule on the matter on Oct. 16.

Cyprus, a former British colony, is very popular with tourists from the U.K., who make up a significant portion of the roughly 4 million holidaymakers the island nation received in recent years.