TUI has been forced to apologise and refund a couple’s Jamaican holiday after hotel staff created a ‘horrifying’ effigy of their dead son crying.

Faye and Andrew Stephens have continued to celebrate their son’s birthday every year since he died in 2014 and friend Karen Baker wanted to surprise them with balloons and cake in the room for the occasion.

Mrs Baker asked staff to organise the celebration, but was left ‘sweating and shaking’ when she walked in and saw the ‘body’ holding a can of lager in his hand and a birthday cake on his lap.

TUI has been forced to apologise and refund a couple’s holiday after staff created an effigy of their dead son (Picture: Karen Baker)

Faye and Andrew Stephens’ son Alex died in 2014 (Picture: Matthew Childs)

Staff had gone through the couple’s clothes and stuffed a shirt and trousers with towels to make it look like a human – and even put tears down his face.




They also wrote ‘Happy birthday’ and ‘we miss you Alex’ on the bed.

Colston Hall renamed Bristol Beacon to shake off association with slave trader

Mrs Baker told the BBC: ‘I was absolutely horrified, as you can imagine I was sweating and shaking. We just didn’t want our friends to see it.

‘I have truly never seen anything like it. I still look at the photographs now and can’t believe somebody thought to do that.’

TUI apologised and the pair received a £2,600 refund for the luxury holiday.

Staff had gone through the couple’s clothes and stuffed a shirt and trousers with towels to make it look like a human and put tears down his face (Picture: Karen Baker)

A TUI spokesperson said: ‘We offer our sincere apologies to the Baker party for their holiday experience in Jamaica.

‘We’re following up with the hotel and believe it was a misunderstanding with no intention to cause upset.’

Got a story for Metro.co.uk? Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk. For more stories like this, check our news page.