Parents of dead tourist fight on

Christopher Rochester died in hospital in Rhodes

A County Durham couple are flying out to Athens on Monday for the latest stage in their six-year fight to find out why their son died on holiday.

Christopher Rochester, 24, died in 2000 after falling from a balcony in Rhodes.

Three doctors were found guilty of his manslaughter through neglect, but their convictions were quashed on appeal.

Now his mother and stepfather, Pam and George Cummings from Chester-le-Street, are pursuing a private prosecution against the doctors.

Mr Cummings said: "We are looking for closure, we are looking to get on with our lives, but until we finalise things for Chris there is no way that myself and my wife can move on."

Internal bleeding

Doctors Stergios Pavlidis, Georgos Karavolias and Mihalis Sokorelos were sentenced to three years in jail, but were later cleared on appeal in 2005.

Mr Rochester, of Chester-le-Street, died of internal bleeding at the Andreas Papandreou Hospital.

He had been left on a hospital trolley for three hours following a fall from a hotel balcony.

His kidney was also missing when his body was returned to Britain.