Speaking at the inquest of the deaths of Christi and Bobby Shepherd on Friday, Cooper, who was also the director general of the Federation of Tour Operators, said travel reps working at the Louis Corcyra Beach Hotel in October 2006 had no reason to suspect that a gas boiler was in the outhouse attached to the Shepherd’s bungalow.
He added: “Most tour operators would look at four or five bedrooms in the hotel and about three bungalows.”
When asked by the coroner, David Hinchliff, if he would have looked inside the boiler room attached to the bungalows, Cooper said: “You might do if you were being incredibly thorough.
“The people carrying out these checks, would just be carrying out a basic audit.
“I don’t believe the duty of care of the tour operator is that they should be carrying out a full safety check.”
Cooper said the hotel owners had told Thomas Cook that there were no gas heaters in the complex, having been told this the tour operator had no reason to look for them.
“As far as the rep was concerned she had no reason to expect there was a gas water heater.
“I also regarded it as an outhouse and most people walking round would see it in the same way.”
Cooper told Wakefield Coroner’s Court that had he been inspecting the hotel complex he wouldn’t have suspected that rooms were fitted with gas heaters, despite the presence of large gas canisters on the site.
When pressed on the issue Cooper said: “I would start with the assumption it was gas for the kitchen.”
When asked whether a tragedy like this could happen again, Mr Cooper said: “The reality is that it could happen again but not just because a customer has booked through a tour operator.
“I don’t believe customers worry about whether they are booking through a tour operator or not.
“What I would say is there is nothing to prevent accidents from happening, but to say this particular outcome will happen again, I’m not so sure.”
Hinchliff asked Cooper what went wrong in what the coroner described as a “catalogue of disaster.”
Cooper said: “The facility was maintained badly. I think tour operators can take reasonable steps and small steps. But personally I feel that falls well short of inspecting every room. That is not reasonable.
“I think inspecting every room would be a disproportionate response.”
Hinchliff said: “Listening to you I feel depressed that nothing has changed.”
Cooper replied: “There has been significant change since this incident. From 2007 on there was new regulations on gas heaters as a direct response to this experience.”
However, when Hinchliff suggested the FTO could use its clout to get hotels to fit carbon monoxide detectors in each room, Cooper said it would be very difficult to achieve with the major hotel chains and that they would “laugh at me” if he suggested it.
Leslie Thomas QC, the Shepherd’s family barrister, grilled Cooper on whether holiday rep Richard Carson had done his job thoroughly enough when he failed to inspect the outbuilding next to the Shepherd’s bungalow.
Cooper replied: “I don’t know, I wasn’t there.”
Thomas said: “When you read the evidence do you agree Mr Carson did do what he should have done?”
Cooper replied: “Yes I do.”
Thomas said: “When he inspected the bungalow should he have looked in the boiler cupboard?”
Cooper replied: “That’s your view not mine. That is not an appropriate step anyone would have done at the time.”
Thomas said: “Surely if he is carrying out his job thoroughly he should have checked that?”
Cooper replied: “With the benefit of hindsight, yes he should.”
Thomas said: “Hindsight should never be an excuse for something that is reasonable at that time. Do you accept that?”
Cooper said: “No I don’t.”
Earlier the court heard from Peter Welsh, the head of health and safety for Thomas Cook.
Welsh told the court that he understood Thomas Cook staff had been told there were no gas-powered heaters at the hotel complex by the hotelier.
Thomas Cook had a health and safety assessment audit carried out after taking on a new hotel and every month on hotels already in the portfolio, the court heard that these checks were more a “tick box exercise” rather than a thorough check.
Hinchliff asked Welsh whether staff’s training levels were high enough to carry out an effective check.
Welsh said: “I think the level of training should be based on what you are trying to do. Having someone identify a gas heater and have them check it for safety is two completely different things.”
Thomas said that Thomas Cook had failed to meet their own safety standards when they allocated the room to the Shepherd family.
He said it was factually correct that the firm did no annual checks and didn’t receive any documents to prove checks had been carried out and that it was factually correct that no carbon monoxide detectors had been fitted in the bungalow.
Nicholas Purnell QC, representing Thomas Cook, asked Welsh about the travel firm’s current policy on gas heaters.
Welsh said: “We wouldn’t use them. Full stop. Internal gas water heaters aren’t acceptable in all circumstances.”
The parents of two children who died from carbon monoxide posioning while on holiday continued to hear representatives from Thomas Cook decline to answer virtually all questions posed to them by their lawyer.
Bobby and Christi Shepherd, six and seven respectively, died at the Louis Corcyra Beach Hotel in Corfu in October 2006 whilst on a half-term holiday.
Nicola Jordison’s husband, David Jordison, who was also working at the resort at the time, said in a statement read in court: “I was employed by Thomas Cook as a resort supervisor in Corfu.”
The statement added: “I deny emphatically that I have had any involvement in any criminal offence.
“I would like to say how genuinely sorry I feel and my thoughts and condolences are with [the Shepherd family] for the loss they have suffered.”
Leslie Thomas QC, representing the Shepherds, asked him: “Were you in a relationship [with Nicola Jordison, née Gibson] at the time?”
He replied: “I decline to answer.”
Thomas explained to him: “I only ask because you would have been her supervisor, and if she was acting inaccurately it would have been your job to to spot that.
“Was your mind on the job or was your mind on other matters?”
He said: “I decline to answer.”
Jordison told the court he no longer works for Thomas Cook.
Thomas asked: “How much initiative and common sense do you train your staff to have? What do you tell them to do in your training?”
He replied: “I decline to answer.”
Thomas said: “You knew there was gas there, because you had been there for a whole season, didn’t you?”
Jordison again declined to answer.
Health and safety manager for Thomas Cook, Clare Kenny, was also questioned by Thomas.
In a statement read on her behalf in court: “In my role as group manager for health and safety I do not have responsibility for obtaining health and safety for each hotel.
“On the 26th October I was in the UK and I received a report saying two children had died.
“These are the first deaths of any Thomas Cook customers of carbon monoxide poisoning.”
Thomas asked: “Does a season run from April through to October?”
She replied: “Yes.”
He said: “The hotel was open for two seasons, each six months. That’s a year’s monthly inspections - that would be 12 inspections.
“Just doing simple maths, before this incident there would have been something like 11 missed opportunities to identify this gas. Would you agree?”
Kenny said: “I decline to answer.”
He posed: “It must follow that Thomas Cook’s system failed.”
She said: “I decline to answer.”
Thomas said: “I know from the audit checks that Thomas Cook hadn’t identified there was gas there. Now is your chance to tell the jury how did Thomas Cook’s system fail so badly. What happened?”
Kenny again declined to answer.
He said: “You had responsibility for the people at the Corfu resort, is that right?”
She said: “I decline to answer.”
Bobby and Christi’s parents and their spouses looked on anxiously as the representatives declined to answer Thomas’ questions.
The inquest continues.
