Defence disputes car lock findings in Xylofagou boys’ deaths case

Local accidentBritish BasesFamagustaTop News Defence disputes car lock findings in Xylofagou boys’ deaths case Boys Death In Xylophagou Car Relevant News Defence disputes car lock findings in Xylofagou boys’ deaths case 30 July 2026 The effort on the Cyprus problem, and its prospects, kept alive 30 July 2026 Nostalgia is not a good strategy 30 July 2026 Natasa Christoforou 30 July 2026 FacebookXWhatsAppEmailPrintViber A lawyer for the father of two boys, aged 8 and 10, found dead in their stepmother’s car in Xylophagou disputed expert findings on the vehicle’s locking system at a Bases Court hearing on Thursday. The boys were found dead in the car on the afternoon of June 28. Their father, 30, faces two charges of causing death by a reckless and negligent act. Xylophagou falls within the Dhekelia Sovereign Base Area, one of two British-administered territories on Cyprus that remained under UK sovereignty after Cypriot independence in 1960. Non-military offences committed within the Sovereign Base Areas are handled by the Court of the Sovereign Base Area rather than Cypriot courts. Christos Theodoulou, the father’s lawyer, addressed the court via video link and asked that his client be allowed to travel to Bulgaria to attend the children’s funeral. Theodoulou challenged expert findings, previously revealed by philenews, showing damage to one of the car’s doors, which remained unlocked despite the vehicle having been locked. According to those findings, the children entered the car through that door and then became trapped inside after the child safety lock activated. Theodoulou told the court CCTV footage shows one child entering the car, then exiting, then entering again. “This contradicts the experts’ findings of a problem with the car’s locking system,” he argued. It was not clarified whether the door had closed again after the child got out. Theodoulou also rejected claims that the father had acted recklessly or left the children unsupervised, adding that the children’s uncle and cousin had been looking after them. He said the family’s financial circumstances meant the father also had to work on Sundays, and that the children’s mother had not wanted them and they had been raised by their grandmother. He argued the father’s only options had been to leave the children in state care or bring them to Cyprus. Theodoulou requested that the father be allowed to attend the funeral escorted by either Bases or Republic police. He also asked that his client be released under conditions, noting the father risks losing his job and has another child to support financially. The prosecution representative said no legal mechanism exists allowing the Republic to enforce Bases Court orders, noting that only cooperation between the Bases Police and Cyprus Police applies. He asked that both the funeral request and the conditional release request be rejected, pointing out that the father had gone to a kiosk to drink alcohol after finishing work that day. The prosecution read part of the stepmother’s original statement, in which she reportedly said her partner would hit her when he had been drinking. She reportedly said in the statement: “When I went home that day, he told me on the phone that he was at a kiosk and would have a beer and come. I packed my clothes into two suitcases to leave, and then I found the children.” The defence noted that this statement was reportedly later withdrawn. Senior judge Brian Cummings KC, who was in Britain for the hearing, adjourned proceedings, which will continue on Thursday at 10:30am. Aside from journalists and relatives of the accused, only the prosecution representative was physically present in court. The father’s lawyer addressed the court from his office in Larnaca via video link, while the father followed proceedings with an interpreter via video link from the Bases prison. The two brothers had been left unsupervised after the father left for work in Limassol on the morning of June 28. The children’s 38-year-old stepmother also left that morning; she was arrested but later released. The father is reported to have gone to work in Limassol at 4:30am and to have returned to his flat in Xylophagou only after the children were found dead. Based on findings from the Bases’ Criminal Investigation Department (CID), it was decided the 30-year-old would face a more serious charge, after it emerged he reportedly did not return home when he finished work but went elsewhere. The children’s movements had been recorded on a motion-activated CCTV camera. 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