Forums Forums National News Hotel leap father ruling quashed

Hotel leap father ruling quashed


The High Court has quashed an inquest verdict of unlawful killing in the case of a father who pushed his son to his death from a hotel balcony in Crete.

John Hogan, of Bradley Stoke, near Bristol, pushed Liam, six, and jumped with two-year-old daughter Mia, after an argument with his then wife.

Coroner Paul Forrest recorded a verdict of unlawful killing in 2008 but judges asked for the case to be reconsidered.

They said that the question of Mr Hogan's mental state was not addressed.

'Error of law'

Two judges, at the High Court in London, ordered that the case should go back "for further consideration" and ruled that the verdict by the Avon coroner was flawed.

Sir Anthony May and Mrs Justice Dobbs indicated, at a hearing in April, that a "really quite serious error of law" was made as the question of Mr Hogan's mental state "was simply not addressed."

The judges ruled that the case must be held before a different coroner.

Mr Hogan's solicitor, Kerstin Scheel, speaking after the ruling at the High Court, said his family still mourned the loss of "much loved and greatly missed" Liam.

In 2008, a Greek court found Mr Hogan, 34, not guilty of murder but ordered that he be detained in a psychiatric unit.

The Hogans had gone on holiday to Crete in August 2006 in an attempt to save their failing marriage.

The incident happened shortly before they were due to fly home. Liam was killed but his sister Mia survived the fall from the fourth-floor hotel balcony.

Psychotic state

Mr Hogan's sister, Christine O'Connor, who lives in St George, Bristol, asked the court to overturn the unlawful killing verdict.

She said that her brother was "not in control of his actions" due to his psychotic state.

Kerstin 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."

Natasha Visser, John Hogan's former wife, has since remarried and is currently living in Australia.

The Director of Public Prosecutions told the High Court on Thursday, that there would be no prosecution of Mr Hogan in the UK for murder.


THE BBC

Im not buying this...he deserves to be punished. We all have pyschotic moments-i have one evry month lol- but what he did was unforgiveable in my book