The two-year-old boy who fell to his death from a fourth-floor window of a Cyprus hotel suffered multiple severe injuries, a coroner has said.
The toddler incurred fatal injuries to his head, vital organs and body after plummeting nearly 40ft from the five-star King Evelthon Beach Hotel and Resort in Chlorakas.
An inquest at Essex Coroner’s Court heard the tragedy unfolded on July 12 2026, the first day of his family holiday on the Mediterranean island.
His father Joshua Foster was fined 3,000 euros (£2,500) last month at a court in the city of Paphos after he admitted causing his son’s death through a reckless, rash or dangerous act.
A judge told him he would ‘have guilt for the rest of his life’, having heard Foster placed the child on a windowsill to show him the view of a waterpark without realising the window was open.
Lincoln Brookes, Essex’s senior coroner, said the child’s case was ‘particularly tragic’ as he opened and adjourned the inquest on Friday.
Joshua Foster pictured leaving court in Paphos in September after admitting causing his son’s death
The child fell from a fourth-floor window of the five-star King Evelthon Beach Hotel and Resort in Chlorakas
When the Daily Mail visited the scene of the tragedy days after it unfolded in July, we found the fourth floor window was still open
‘This two-year-old child was on holiday with his family in Paphos in Cyprus,’ Mr Brookes said.
‘He sadly fell from a window on the fourth floor of the hotel the family were staying at and, sadly, his death was confirmed that same day at the hospital.’
The provisional cause of death was given as ‘severe craniocerebral injuries and multiple injuries of the body and vital organs’.
A full inquest has been set for January 6, Mr Brookes said, as he offered his condolences to the child’s family.
Foster, an AI director at Big Four accounting firm KPMG, ‘lost control’ of his son as he was showing him the view of a water park, the court in Paphos was told last month.
Judge Froso Christodoulidou said that the behaviour, while reckless, was an ‘innocent mistake’ – telling Foster he would ‘need to face his guilt for the rest of his life’.
The judge said there were no clear markings that indicated the window was open, and while Foster had consumed alcohol earlier in the day, this did not play a role in the accident.
Grieving Foster ‘co-operated immediately’ with the authorities, and had no previous criminal record.
Judge Christodoulidou previously told him that she would not seek to impose a custodial sentence given his ‘personal situation and character’.
She felt jail was not appropriate: the case, she said, had caused ‘lots of harm to his family’, and noted that his career would be affected. He is facing a tribunal in relation to the case that could see him struck off.
When the Daily Mail visited the hotel shortly after the accident, it found the large fourth-floor window was still open.
UK health and safety guidelines state hotel windows large enough for children to fall through should be restricted to an opening of 4in or less.
But in Cyprus, the window must simply be above a ledge at least 3.5ft tall – a rule the King Evelthon complied with.
Following the sentencing, a spokesman for the Foster family said: ‘Today marks the end of the legal proceedings in Cyprus, and we are grateful to the court and Judge Christodoulidou for her decision to apply the maximum mitigation afforded to her.
‘We are relieved that this process is now over, but for our family, the consequences of this tragedy will never end.
‘Our son was deeply loved and will be forever missed. His loss is something we carry with us every day.
‘Our focus now is on supporting one another and finding a way forward as a family. We ask that our privacy is respected as we do so.’
