Dad jumps off balcony with small kids after fuss

alby · #1 08-18-2006, 09:17 AM

A British man is facing a murder charge after his son, 6, died and his daughter, 2, was injured when the trio plunged from a hotel balcony in Greece.

John Hogan is under police guard in hospital following the death of his son Liam, who suffered fatal injuries in the incident at a holiday resort in southern Crete.

Hogan was pictured on the front page of British newspapers Friday in a hospital bed after reportedly telling doctors: "I want to die too."

The businessman's two-year-old daughter, Mia, suffered a broken arm and has been released from University General Hospital in Heraklion.

Hogan, 32, suffered a broken arm, leg and chest injuries and underwent surgery at the hospital Thursday.

After the operation he was transferred to the hospital's intensive care unit, where a spokesman said his condition was improving.

"The patient is getting better and he will be transferred to the orthopedics ward today," he told the UK's Press Association.

"He had a fracture to the femur and the tibia and he has been operated on for these fractures. He is now breathing with a face mask and is awake and fully aware," the hospital spokesman said.

He added he could not say how long Hogan would be in hospital.

A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office told PA Hogan will be arrested on suspicion of the murder of his son and the attempted murder of his daughter, but was not likely to be charged until he recovered from surgery.

A University General Hospital spokesman told PA Mia was in a "good condition" with fractures to her left arm, now in a cast.

Hogan, who runs a tiling business from his home in Bradley Stoke, Bristol, western England, was on a two-week holiday with his wife Natasha, a nurse.

He plunged from the fourth-floor hotel balcony with their two children on Tuesday, apparently after arguing with his wife. The incident took place at the Petra Mare Hotel, a 227-bedroom four-star beachfront hotel in Lerapetra, a popular holiday destination on the island, PA said.

Panayotis Spatharakis, director of the Heraklion Hospital, told the Daily Mirror: "We asked him why he did it and he told us he was very drunk and could not exactly remember what happened.

"I feel that once he recovers and understands what he has done he should commit suicide."

The Daily Mirror reported that Hogan's plight after the plunge brought little sympathy from angry locals who surrounded his stretcher to scream abuse.