An inquest to decide whether Bradley Stoke balcony leap father John Hogan unlawfully killed his son is expected to start next week.
Mr Hogan plunged 50ft with daughter Mia, then two, after pushing six-year-old Liam to his death following an argument while on holiday in Crete in August 2006. Mia survived the fall.
A Greek court cleared Hogan of murder in January 2008, deciding that the former tiler had been suffering from “an earthquake of insanity”.
After 16 months in a Greek psychiatric hospital, he returned to the UK and received treatment at the Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit at Callington Road Hospital in Brislington, as a voluntary patient.
An inquest by the Avon Coroner in March 2008 recorded a verdict of unlawful killing but two High Court judges later quashed that verdict and ordered another inquest. They indicated that a “really quite serious error of law” had occurred because the question of Hogan’s mental state “was simply not addressed”.
The new inquest is due to start at Flax Bourton Coroner’s court on Monday (28th November). It will be presided over by the new Avon Coroner, Maria Voisin, with no jury.
Read more: Date set for new hotel leap inquest (Evening Post)
“Yesterday’s hearing was told former tiler Mr Hogan, who was cleared of his son’s murder in a Greek court almost four years ago, had been sectioned and was unfit to give oral evidence.”
Read more: Balcony death jump father ‘too ill’ to give evidence, inquest told (Bristol Evening Post)
“A father was not mentally ill when he killed his six-year-old son by pushing him off a hotel balcony in Crete five years ago, an inquest has heard.”
Read more: Liam Hogan inquest: Father ‘not legally insane at time’ (BBC)
“A second inquest into the death of a six-year-old boy who died after he was pushed off a hotel balcony in Crete has returned a verdict of unlawful killing.”
Read more: Liam Hogan inquest: Coroner records unlawful killing (BBC)
There’s a report on the inquest verdict in today’s Evening Post:
Verdict of unlawful killing for Bristol balcony push boy