Balcony death ruling is quashed

Published on Thursday 7 May 2009 18:53

A FRESH inquest was ordered yesterday into the death of a six-year-old boy pushed off a hotel balcony by his father when a holiday trip to Crete to salvage the man's marriage went wrong.

Avon coroner Paul Forrest had decided former tiler John Hogan unlawfully killed son Liam.

But yesterday, two High Court judges quashed the verdict and ordered that the case must go back "for further consideration" before a different coroner.

Sir Anthony May and Mrs Justice Dobbs ruled the question of Mr Hogan's mental state and whether or not he was insane at the time of the tragedy was not addressed by the coroner. They ruled the matter would have to go back to a different coroner so that the issue could be properly considered.

Hogan, 34, of Bradley Stoke, near Bristol, pushed Liam and his two-year-old sister Mia, before jumping himself following a row with his then wife Natasha.

Liam died but Mia survived the 50ft plunge from the fourth-floor balcony of the Petra Mare Hotel at Ierapetra, Crete, in August 2006.

Mr Hogan's solicitor Kerstin Scheel said after yesterday's ruling that his family was continuing to mourn the loss of "much loved and greatly missed" Liam.

Ms Scheel said: "Mr Hogan and his family were legally advised that the coroner had applied the wrong legal test in reaching his verdict at the inquest into the death of Liam and believed that an error in a matter of such enormous importance should be corrected."

A Greek court previously found Mr Hogan not guilty of murder but ordered his detention in a psychiatric unit. The Greek jury decided he had been suffering from "an earthquake of insanity."

After the ruling, Brian Chandler, the stepfather of Hogan's ex-wife Natasha, said the family were "pleased" with the ruling as it showed only that the legal process was flawed, not the verdict.

Mr Chandler revealed that Natasha, whose surname is now Visser after she remarried, and Mia were "recovering well" and building a new life in Australia.