NEWS

Trial of Briton accused of murdering girlfriend starts in Crete

The trial of a British man accused of beating his girlfriend to death in Crete in May 2010 began at a criminal court in Iraklio on Tuesday, but was due to be postponed as judicial officials go on strike on Wednesday.

Chelsea Hyndman, from West Yorkshire in the UK, aged 20, died in a Crete hospital in May 2010 after undergoing extensive surgery for abdominal injuries, which local investigators believed to have been inflicted by her boyfriend, Luke Walker, 24, from the West Midlands.

The couple were living on the island at the time and working as bar staff in the popular resort town of Malia.

Hyndman has insisted that he is innocent of the murder charge brought against him ever since his arrest, claiming that Hyndman suffered her injuries during a fall after a night out in Malia.

The British man was held in remanded custody for five months and is currently on bail with orders not to leave the island.

Key testimony in the proceeding is expected to come from medical examiners who conducted two postmortems on the 20-year-old.

The first part of the trial was originally scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, though the judicial strike will mean a postponement. No date has been set for the resumption of the hearing.

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