Holiday deaths: resort in the clear

Dec 31 2008 by Jon Tunney, The Journal

SPANISH courts have cleared a holiday resort of wrongdoing after two sisters died trapped in fold-down beds.

Mildred Bowman and Alice Wardle were found dead in a Benidorm apartment. They could have been trapped for up to four days before dying.

Now more than three years after the double tragedy, courts in Spain have cleared bosses at the resort of any criminal wrongdoing and ruled their deaths were simply an accident.

Family yesterday spoke of their devastation at the verdict and said they were determined to launch a civil action.

Mildred’s sons Paul and John Bowman and daughter Carole Gregory were outraged by the ruling.

Paul, 44, of Gateshead, said: “I don’t understand how it has taken three and a half years to get to this outcome. It has been a nightmare for the whole family.

“I believe if they had made sure those beds were safe, I would be spending this Christmas with my mum.

“But this is not the end. We will now start a civil action.”

Mrs Bowman, 62, of Low Fell, and Mrs Wardle, 68, of Bensham, went on holiday together several times a year.

They flew to Benidorm on Saturday, July 30, 2005, and checked into the Levante Club Apartments.

Mrs Wardle’s daughter Allison Gibbons was also in Benidorm with husband Peter and their sons.

When the sisters failed to turn up for an arranged meeting, she became concerned and insisted the room was broken into. Hotel staff made the devastating discovery of the two women trapped inside the casement of a fold-down bed that had collapsed from the wall, sealing the women inside like a tomb.

It is believed they had been trapped for up to four days before they died.

A judicial investigation into their deaths was ordered by a local magistrate and the cause of death was given as asphyxiation caused by the gradual pressure of the frame bearing down on them.

Tour operator MyTravel, through which the women booked the holiday, also ordered its own investigation and a report sent by the company to the family claimed unsuitable screws and wall plugs were to blame. But Spanish police suggested at the time the women failed to pull out the legs of the bed when they lay down and the extra force pulled the frame from the wall.

The criminal case was brought before a court in Alicante, with the family keeping in touch with their Spanish solicitor through the help of a translator.

Mrs Bowman’s children were offered an out-of-court settlement by MyTravel, now owned by Thomas Cook, but refused, saying no cash could compensate them.

They hope to bring legal action against My Travel.

Mr Bowman said: “MyTravel put my mum and my auntie in that hotel. We want to bring the prosecution.”

A Thomas Cook spokesman said: “The company continues to express its sincere condolences to the family. Following lengthy discussions with the family’s lawyer, we understood they had decided to proceed directly against the hotel through the Spanish legal system. Therefore, we are unable to comment further on this case.”

An inquest was opened into the sisters’ deaths by Gateshead coroner Terence Carney in 2005.

Now the criminal case is finished, it can be resumed.