Police arrested the 37-year-old father of a three-year-old British boy late last night, hours after the child died at the hotel where the family was staying on holiday on Chloraka seafront avenue.
Paphos assistant Police Director Paphos Michalis Nicolaou said the arrest took place after 10pm. The father faces charges of causing death through a reckless, careless or dangerous act, failing in his duty as head of the family, and failing in his responsibility as a person who had care of another person.
The father will appear before the Paphos District Court this morning for a remand order. The court is expected to hear testimony on the facts of the case.
A post-mortem on the child’s body will be carried out at midday at the mortuary of Nicosia General Hospital by forensic pathologists Aggeliki Papetta and Orthodoxos Orthodoxou.
The British family had arrived in Paphos for their holiday only yesterday at dawn and had been due to stay at the hotel in the Chloraka coastal area until the 25th of the month.
According to police investigations, at 6pm the boy was playing with his father in the corridor on the fourth floor, where their room was located, when, under circumstances still under investigation, he fell through an open corridor window.
The boy landed on the hotel’s main veranda on the first floor and was fatally injured. An ambulance was called to the scene, but when paramedics arrived they found the child was not responding. He was taken to Paphos General Hospital, where doctors on duty pronounced him dead.
The scene was cordoned off by CID Paphos officers, who began investigating the circumstances that led to the incident. Statements were taken, while authorities are also examining hotel camera footage. According to philenews information, some of the footage appears to show the boy falling at 6:02pm.
The British couple have another child, a five-year-old girl, who is also with them on the holiday. The woman’s parents are also in Paphos with the couple.
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