Boy death fall ruling was error

John Hogan being escorted away from the courthouse in Hania

A coroner's finding that a boy was unlawfully killed when his father jumped from a hotel balcony with him, was an "error of law", a court heard.

In April 2008 coroner Paul Forrest found that John Hogan, from Bristol, unlawfully killed Liam, six, in Crete.

On Wednesday at the High Court in London, Judge Sir Anthony May said the 34-year-old's mental state at the time had not been taken into account.

Hugh Mercer QC, for Mr Forrest, accepted an error had been made.

At the High Court Sir Anthony, sitting with Mrs Justice Dobbs, said of Mr Forrest's conduct of the inquest: "Really a quite serious error of law was made.

"The question of [Mr Hogan's] mental state was simply not addressed."

'Psychotic state'

The court is to decide whether or not the unlawful killing verdict should stand, be quashed and a fresh verdict given, or a new inquest held.

A Greek court found Mr Hogan not guilty of murder but ordered him to be detained in a psychiatric unit.

The jury decided he had been suffering from "an earthquake of insanity".

Mr Hogan's sister, Christine O'Connor, from St George, Bristol, is asking the High Court to overturn the unlawful killing verdict on the grounds that Mr Hogan was not responsible for his actions because of his mental state.

Mr Hogan, of Bradley Stoke, leapt with Liam and his two-year-old sister Mia, following an argument with his then wife, Natasha.

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

The court was told the couple had gone on holiday in a "make or break" attempt to patch up their failing marriage and the incident occurred shortly before they were due to return home.

Shortly before the incident an argument had started between the couple and the then Mrs Hogan said she intended to leave her husband and take the children with her.

In a statement Maria Voisin, acting coroner for the District of Avon, said: "Here at Avon Coroners Court, we are always determined to ensure that the most appropriate verdict is given in line with the evidence, the rules, legislation and legal precedent.

"With this in mind, we have been assisting the High Court in reviewing this particular case this week.

"We will carefully consider the comments of the judge made earlier today about aspects of this case and if appropriate, apply any lessons learnt to the conduct of future hearings. We look forward to hearing the judge's finding on the verdict itself in the near future."