Hotel fall boy was unlawfully killed

LONDON (Reuters) - A six-year-old boy who died when he was pushed from a hotel balcony in Crete was unlawfully killed, a coroner said on Thursday.

Liam Hogan died from head injuries when he fell 50 ft from a fourth-floor room at the Petra Mare Hotel in 2006.

His sister Mia, then aged two, survived with broken bones. The children's father, John, who also survived the fall, was cleared of murder at a trial in Crete.

The 33-year-old from Bristol was committed to a psychiatric unit for at least three years.

British police said after the inquest at Bristol that all the documents, including those from the Crete trial, had been passed to the Crown Prosecution Service who will decide whether any action will be taken against Hogan on his return to the UK.

The children's mother Natasha Visser, said the inquest had provided "refreshing clarity" as to what had happened on the night of her son's death.

Witnesses, who were not called during the trial, provided new evidence, including that the children had been pushed and that they had tried to reach out to each other during the fall.

Visser said justice so far had not been done, and she was critical of the Crete trial.

"The Greek court made little attempt to establish the facts surrounding Liam's death and did not even call known eyewitnesses," she said.