Father who threw son from balcony makes return to UK

John Hogan who jumped from a Crete hotel balcony with his son Liam in his arms, has been receiving treatment in the Greek capital of Athens since he was cleared last year of murder.

But British police today confirmed the 36-year-old was onboard a flight to an unknown UK destination.

Hogan, from Bristol, will return to Britain a free man, but is expected to be taken into care at a mental health facility immediately.

The former tiler has spent three years in Greek prisons and psychiatric hospitals since the incident at the Petra Mare Hotel, in Crete, which also saw Hogan's daughter Mia badly injured.

Liam died of head injuries but Hogan and Mia, then two, survived with broken limbs following the plunge on August 15 2006.

His flight home comes two weeks after an Athens court decided he had made an adequate recovery and does not pose a risk to other passengers.

In a statement released after the announcement, Brian Chandler, the stepfather of Liam's mother Natasha Visser, who now lives in Australia, said: "The prospect of John Hogan returning after just 16 months of a recommended minimum (by a very lenient Greek court) of three years detention in a psychiatric unit is simply horrendous.

"As he has no conviction of any kind against him, he will therefore be free to travel the world, if he chooses, in search of Mia, the daughter he tried to kill. This is a child protection' issue which we intend to continue to pursue."

Mr Chandler, who lives near Bristol, said the family was still dissatisfied with the original verdict to find him not guilty of murder on psychiatric grounds in January last year.

A court on Crete upheld his defence that he had suffered an "earthquake of psychosis".

Mr Chandler added: "We are totally dissatisfied with the Greek court who reached a not guilty' verdict in a murder trial in just one and a half days, without calling a single eyewitness, and without establishing the basic fact that John Hogan had pushed both children off the balcony."

The family went on to attack the Crown Prosecution Service for not retrying Hogan in the UK.

The statement went on: "Although they (the CPS) have the power to retry John Hogan in the UK, they have so far chosen not to."