Balcony-fall dad can seek review

1:34pm Tuesday 4th November 2008

A father who threw his two children off a hotel balcony, killing his son, has won permission to launch a High Court challenge against an inquest verdict of unlawful killing.

Two judges ruled John Hogan's case raised "serious points that are plainly arguable" and gave him permission to seek a judicial review.

Hogan wants to overturn Avon coroner Paul Forrest's ruling earlier this year that his six-year-old son Liam was "unlawfully killed".

Former tiler Hogan, 34, of Bradley Stoke, near Bristol, 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 while on holiday in Crete two years ago.

The unlawful killing verdict led to a police inquiry that could open up the possibility of a new murder trial in Britain.

Hogan, acting through his sister and with the benefit of legal aid, asked Lord Justice Dyson and Mr Justice Griffith Williams, sitting at London's High Court, for permission to seek court orders quashing the verdict.

His lawyers argued it was an irrational decision, wrong in law and based on insufficient evidence. The coroner was not represented at the hearing.

Giving permission for a judicial review, Lord Justice Dyson described it as "a tragic case". He described how the family were holidaying at the Petra Mare Hotel at Ierapetra, Crete, in August 2006, when Liam's death occurred.

The Hogan marriage was unhappy. Before the balcony plunge, an argument had started between the couple and the then Mrs Hogan said she intended to leave her husband and take the children with her.

The judge ruled: "In my judgment it is, to put it at its lowest, arguable that the coroner was wrong to regard Mr Hogan's 'mens rea' (whether or not he actually intended to commit a crime) as irrelevant (to his verdict)."