A British man who killed his son when he jumped from a hotel balcony with his two children in Crete was cleared of murder yesterday.

The court in Hania, Crete, ordered that John Hogan, 33, receive mandatory and indefinite treatment at a Greek psychiatric hospital as he was considered a risk to public safety.

Hogan, from Bristol, denied willfully killing his 6-year-old son Liam and attempting to kill his daughter Mia, 2, after jumping with them from the fourth floor of a hotel while on holiday in August 2006.

The court heard the Hogans had gone on the holiday in an attempt to patch up their failing marriage. Hogan’s lawyers had argued he was mentally unstable at the time and said he has a family history of depression. Following the verdict, his former wife Natasha Hogan, 35, said she was surprised by the verdict. “The result albeit somewhat unexpected, has left me feeling that Liam lost his young life for nothing,” she said in a statement.