A GRIEVING father wept as he described the moment he was told his children had died from carbon monoxide poisoning in their holiday bungalow.

Christianne Shepherd, seven, and her brother Robert, six, from, Horbury, Wakefield, died after a faulty boiler leaked gas into their Corfu bungalow in October 2006.

The children were on holiday with their father Neil and his partner Ruth Beatson, who were both left in a coma as a result of the accident, but survived.

Two Thomas Cook employees, Nicola Gibson and Richard Carson, went on trial in Corfu Town charged with manslaughter by negligence and bodily harm by negligence.

Giving evidence at the trial, Mr Shepherd described the moment he woke up in an Athens hospital to be told of the tragedy by his brother.

He said: “I can’t really remember what was said or anything about that time because we were still very poorly and all I can remember is that my brother informed me that I had lost my children.”

He told the court he did not think to ask for any safety information when the family arrived at the Louis Corcyra Beach Hotel in Gouvia as he had checked that all accommodation was Corgi-registered.

Mr Shepherd said: “You’re going on holiday, the last thing going through your mind is not being safe.

“You just presume that you’re safe, you presume that the tour operator has just done the checks so that you can just go away and enjoy your holiday and not have your children die.”

Mr Shepherd said Robert had complained of feeling dizzy in the morning of the day of the tragedy but later “brightened up”.

It was only that evening, after the family had visited a restaurant and were going to bed, that Christianne showed signs of any illness.

“About 10 minutes after we had gone to bed Christi sat up and started being sick,” he said.

“I immediately got up and went over to her to help.

“When I sat up I felt dizzy but my concern was for my daughter.”

Mr Shepherd tearfully struggled to tell the court how he went to get a carrier bag for his daughter to vomit into, before vomiting himself and remembering nothing until he woke up in hospital.