Balcony killing verdict 'flawed'

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Avon coroner Paul Forrest found that former tiler John Hogan, 34, of Bradley Stoke, near Bristol, "unlawfully killed" six-year-old Liam as a holiday attempt on Crete to salvage his marriage went disastrously wrong.

On Wednesday, Sir Anthony May, sitting with Mrs Justice Dobbs, said of Mr Forrest's conduct of the inquest: "The question of (Mr Hogan's) mental state was simply not addressed."

The judges now have to decide whether to overturn the verdict and order a fresh inquest, or possibly substitute their own verdict.

Sir Anthony said the court hoped to give its judgment next week.

Hogan pushed Liam and his two-year-old sister, Mia, before jumping himself following a row with his then wife, Natasha.

Liam died, but 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 him to be detained in a psychiatric unit. The jury decided he had been suffering from "an earthquake of insanity".

His older sister, Christine O'Connor, from St George, Bristol, on Wednesday asked the High Court in London to overturn the unlawful killing verdict on the grounds that Mr Hogan was "not in control of his actions" because of his psychotic state.