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Paphos District Court imposed a €3,000 fine on Joshua Foster after the 37-year-old Essex accountant admitted causing death through a reckless, rash or dangerous act, sparing him a jail term that could have reached four years. The incident occurred on July 12 when his two-year-old son plunged nearly 40 feet from a window at the King Evelthon Beach Hotel and Resort in Chlorakas near Paphos. Foster had placed the toddler on the windowsill to view a waterpark while waiting for an elevator with the boy’s grandfather, believing the window was closed, according to evidence presented in court.[[1]](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/joshua-foster-cyprus-son-sentence-b3067977.html)
The boy suffered multiple skull fractures, broken bones and damage to vital organs, and was pronounced dead at Paphos General Hospital a couple of hours after the fall, prosecutor Chryso Perganti told the court during earlier hearings. Foster, a senior accountant at KPMG, had spent the day at the pool with his wife, two children and in-laws following their early-morning arrival in Cyprus before the family prepared for dinner. The court heard that the father was playing with the child, swinging him at one point, when the toddler spotted the waterpark through the large window beside the elevator.[[2]](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckz65w2jwe0do)
Foster’s lawyer Alexandros Alexandrou told the judge that the fraction of a second in which the father lost control of his son would haunt him for the rest of his life, urging leniency on the grounds that the loss itself served as sufficient punishment. The defence highlighted Foster’s guilty plea, his cooperation with authorities, lack of prior convictions and the disciplinary proceedings he faces at work that could cost him his professional licence. Judge Froso Christodoulidou delivered the sentence after a 25-minute hearing on October 16 during which Foster hugged family members afterward.[[3]](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/cyprus-british-justice-b3062159.html)
A blood sample taken from Foster roughly six hours after the incident showed an alcohol concentration that experts estimated placed him over the legal limit at the time of the fall, though prosecutors did not allege that drunkenness caused the tragedy, according to court records. The father was initially remanded in custody for eight days before his release on bail conditions that included surrendering his passport and weekly police reporting. Police received the emergency call at about 6:40pm local time after witnesses saw the child fall, and the family had been due to stay at the five-star resort until July 25.[[4]](https://abcnews.com/International/wireStory/british-father-asks-cyprus-judge-avoid-prison-after-137032251)
The Paphos Hoteliers Association stated that the King Evelthon Beach Hotel and Resort bore no responsibility because the window met all legal safety standards, with its 1.2-metre height exceeding the 1.1-metre minimum required for railings or openings under Cypriot regulations. Association president Evripides Loizides noted that such windows opposite elevators are standard for ventilation and that the configuration complied fully with the law. The hotel, popular with British tourists who form a significant share of the roughly four million annual visitors to Cyprus, faced no charges in the case.[[5]](https://en.politis.com.cy/news/cy-news/1019107/hotel-not-responsible-for-toddlers-fatal-fall-says-association)
Foster wept quietly in the dock as facts of the case were read out with the help of a translator during the October mitigation hearing, which detailed how the family had enjoyed pool activities before the evening tragedy unfolded. The boy’s mother learned of the fall from the grandfather and rushed to the scene while paramedics attempted resuscitation at the hotel. Similar incidents have prompted calls for stricter hotel window safeguards across popular Mediterranean destinations, though Cypriot authorities confirmed this property adhered to existing building codes at the time.[[6]](https://cyprus-mail.com/2026/10/16/british-dad-fined-e3000-after-child-falls-to-death-at-paphos-hotel)
