HOGAN TO FACE RE-TRIAL FOR UNLAWFUL KILLING OF HIS SON

When hearing the judgment of the Greek Court in this case that this man was not guilty of any unlawful act because he was insane after just a one and a half day hearing, I did feel very shocked and felt immense sorrow for the mother.

British subjects who kill abroad are subject to our own jurisdiction to try them for those acts. What is unual here is that he has already been tried abroad but certainly, on the basis of our own law this was a mistrial. It is unheard of in UK to have such a short hearing into such a serious case without hearing properly from live witnesses.

At the Coroner's inquest in the UK the Coroner has now ruled that he pushed the children off and that was an unlawful act. He was arguing with his wife and from the witness account placed the children in front of the guard rail and then moved forward again and pushed them off. This sounds like deliberate murder to me. If he was psychotic, and I am not clear that he was, as opposed to be in a furious rage where he thought he would punish the wife in the most macabre way, then under UK law he would have been entitled to the defence of "dimished responsibility" to the charge of murder, on the basis that he was so ill at the time, he just did not understand the nature and quality of his act. However, this would not mean that he was "not guilty". It would mean instead that he would be guilty of manslaughter because diminished responsibility merely reduced the culpability of the accused, it does not say there was no unlawful act. Plainly there was. This would then entitle him to treatment in a secure hospital prior to serving the remainder of his sentence in prison. Unlike murder where the offender gets an automatic life sentence, the sentence would be considered on the basis of the danger he presented, therefore given the circumstances he would probably still have received a life sentence and be kept in custdody until the risk he presented was considered to be substantially reduced.

It is simply not reasonable that a man who has committed such a serious offence simply gets a few months psychiatric treatment and is then allowed home. No wonder this woman feels that justice has not been secured and that he is still a danger, he is!

It seems that we may now persuade the Greek authorities that this was a mistrial or if not, then we could place him on trial in the UK. I applaud the Coroner for making an appropriate judgment here that must give some satisfaction to this poor woman who may continue to feel threatened herself by him, given what he did to her children.

Of application to the McCann case, of course it confirms that even if either of the McCanns were ultimately found to be suffering from mental illness or serious pscyhopathic disorder this would not enable them to just escape scott free with nothing more than psychiatric treatment. Furthermore, at any time, UK authorities could elect to try them here, although as a matter of courtesy to Portugal will enable them to prosecute, should they so wish.

I hope the forum can remain a pleasant place for posters who genuinely wish to post on topic and not abuse others posters, or indeed myself, PLEASE.

Viv x



Balcony-death father could face trial again for murderBy DAN NEWLING - More by this author » Last updated at 20:47pm on 27th March 2008
Comments (52) The father who pushed his six-year-old son to his death from a fourth-floor balcony could be tried again for murder after his ex-wife declared that "justice has so far not been done".
As an inquest yesterday found that John Hogan "unlawfully killed" his son Liam in Crete, British police put in motion the legal moves that could see him face a retrial.
Officers have sent a file to the Crown Prosecution Service, where it will be reviewed to see if a case could be brought based on the testimony of previouslyunheard witnesses.

The Hogan family: New eye witnesses claimed John Hogan (far left) actually threw his son Liam (centre) and daughter Mia off the balcony after a row with his wife Natasha
One told the Bristol inquest into Liam's death she saw 33-year- old Hogan deliberately push his son from the hotel balcony 50ft up. The testimony was not heard at the Greek murder trial where Hogan was found not guilty after claiming to have been suffering from "an earthquake of insanity".
After the inquest Liam's mother Natasha Visser, who was Hogan's wife at the time her son died but who has since remarried, bitterly criticised the Greek legal system's failure to hold her former husband to account.
Shuddering with emotion, she described how she will remain haunted by the three hitherto-unknown British witnesses' descriptions of her son falling to his death.
Mrs Visser, 35, who claims that Hogan remains dangerous, added: "The Greek court made little attempt to establish the facts surrounding Liam's death and did not even call known eyewitnesses.

Distraught: Natasha Hogan said her life has been wrecked by her ex-husband John
"We understand that the decision about what happens next legally is in the hands of the English legal system.
"We can only trust that they will re- examine the evidence as a whole and make a decision that will protect John from himself and others."
She went on: "I cannot describe the pain I feel hearing that John had pushed his children off the balcony . . . walking away and then returning to push them.
"The image of the children looking like they were trying to reach out to each other will haunt me and my family for ever."
Hogan, from Bradley Stoke, near Bristol, turned killer during an argument with his then-wife on holiday in August 2006.
The former floor-tiler threw his two-year-old daughter Mia and Liam from the balcony before jumping himself. Mia survived.
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Witnesses Iain and Sarah Davidson leave the Hogan inquest yesterday. Sarah broke down in tears as she recounted seeing the three plunge to the ground.
He told his trial he could not remember the incident. However Sarah Davidson, 38, who was on holiday in Crete, told the inquest: "I saw two children standing on the balcony on top of a wall. They were in front of the metal rail guard.
"The male came forward in between the two children and pushed them off."
At his trial, which lasted a day and a half, Hogan was declared to have been insane and legally incapable of being found guilty of murder or attempted murder.
Yesterday coroner Paul Forrest fell short of criticising the Greek verdict but said the trial did not have all the evidence in front of it.
He said Hogan's "incapability of understanding" was "irrelevant", adding: "The facts were abundantly clear in that the children were seen to be pushed off the balcony - objectively an unlawful act."


Liam Hogan died of severe head injuries after plunging from the fourth floor of a Crete hotel with his father, John
The Crown Prosecution Service said if Hogan were re-tried in Britain, it would be the first time a British citizen has been tried for a second time when the original court case took place abroad.
The Daily Mail understands that any retrial is more likely to happen in Greece, where the supreme court has the power to declare the original a mistrial.
Hogan remains in a secure psychiatric hospital in Greece but could be allowed to return to Britain a free man within months. That could complicate efforts by Mrs Visser's supporters to force a Greek retrial.
Hogan's family said he had been acquitted in relation to Liam's death because at the time "he was suffering from a psychotic condition such that he neither knew nor understood the nature and consequences of his actions".