Anxious wait for Bristol family of balcony death boy

Relatives of Bradley Stoke schoolboy Liam Hogan must wait a week to find out whether an inquest ruling that he was unlawfully killed by his father will be overturned by the High Court.

Avon coroner Paul Forrest found that former tiler John Hogan unlawfully killed Liam when he pushed the six-year-old and his sister Mia, aged two, from the balcony of a Greek hotel before jumping himself following a row with his then wife, Natasha.

Last year's inquest verdict came after a Greek court found Hogan not guilty of murder but ordered him to be detained in a psychiatric unit after accepting his explanation that he was insane at the time of the incident in August 2006.

On Wednesday Sir Anthony May, sitting with Mrs Justice Dobbs, said that the verdict was flawed by a "really quite serious error of law".

He said that during the inquest: "The question of (Hogan's) mental state was simply not addressed".

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

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

Liam died, but Mia and her father, now aged 34, survived the 50ft plunge from the fourth-floor balcony of the Petra Mare Hotel at Ierapetra, Crete.

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

The Hogans had gone on holiday in a "make or break" attempt to patch up their failing marriage and the incident followed an argument, shortly before they were due to return home.

The court heard the Director of Public Prosecutions had indicated that there would be no prosecution of Hogan in this country for murder.

His ex-wife, Natasha Visser, has since married again and now lives in Australia.

Today her counsel, Gareth Patterson, argued a verdict of unlawful killing should be left open to any future inquest as there could be further investigation and witnesses called to give evidence that Hogan was not suffering from insanity.

James Badenoch QC, appearing for Ms O'Connor and Hogan, said it would be unsafe to rely on such evidence.

It was unlikely to be "of sufficient quality" to undermine expert evidence from the two Greek psychiatrists who had found Hogan was suffering from psychosis and not responsible for his actions.

He also claimed that a finding of unlawful killing "without the very strongest of evidence" would not be in the interests of Mr Hogan's daughter Mia, who had survived the fall.

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

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

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