Father who threw son from balcony cleared of unlawful killing

John Hogan pushed son Liam to his death in Crete and then tried to kill himself while suffering from what a local jury described as "an earthquake of insanity".

But Avon coroner Paul Forrest was found to have made a "really quite serious error in law" in failing to fully recognise Mr Hogan's mental state.

The judges, Sir Anthony May and Mrs Justice Dobbs, ruled the verdict was flawed and ordered that the case must go back "for further consideration".

Outside court Mr Hogan's solicitor, Kerstin Scheel, said the case would now be referred to a different coroner to consider a new verdict.

Ms Scheel said: "Mr Hogan and his family were legally advised that the coroner had applied the wrong legal test in reaching his verdict and believed that an error in a matter of such enormous importance should be corrected. Mr Hogan and his family continue to mourn the loss of Liam, a much-loved and greatly missed little boy."

Mr Hogan, 34, of Bradley Stoke, near Bristol, also pushed Liam's two-year-old sister Mia off the balcony before jumping himself following a row with his then wife Natasha.

Mia survived the 50ft plunge from the fourth-floor balcony of the Petra Mare Hotel at Ierapetra, Crete, in August 2006. A Greek court found Mr Hogan not guilty of murder but ordered his detention in a psychiatric unit.

His older sister, Christine O'Connor had asked the court to overturn the unlawful killing verdict on the grounds that Mr Hogan was "not in control of his actions" because of his psychotic state.

The Hogans went on holiday in a make-or-break attempt to patch up their failing marriage. But there was an argument over Mrs Hogan's plans to leave her husband and take the children with her.

The Director of Public Prosecutions indicated that there will be no prosecution of Mr Hogan in this country for murder. His former wife, Natasha Visser, has since re-married and now lives in Australia. During the hearing James Badenoch QC, representing Ms O'Connor and Mr Hogan, said two Greek psychiatrists had found Mr Hogan was suffering from psychosis.

He also warned that a finding of unlawful killing "without the very strongest of evidence" would be against the interests of Mr Hogan's daughter Mia.

He said a verdict that her father "intended" to harm or kill her, as opposed to being mentally ill, could affect her growing up and affect any theoretical possibility of father and daughter meeting in the future.

Mr Badenoch suggested a narrative verdict, with no reference to unlawful killing, could be substituted based on the evidence already available.

He suggested that "no practical purpose or practical benefit" would come from "a further expensive, time consuming and harrowing reinvestigation of these matters".