Wife defends husband. Did Antidpressants cause tragedy?

[kizzie]

Wife's astonishing tribute to hotel plunge father
22:05pm 21st August 2006 DAily Mail


In a remarkable defence of the man she was apparently planning to leave, Natasha Hogan said her husband's behaviour was completely out of character. And she insisted he was not drunk when he killed the couple's six-year-old son Liam in a callous act that has shocked Britons and Greeks alike.

John Hogan threw his son 50 ft from the balcony before jumping off himself with his two-year-old daughter Mia. He cushioned her fall, and she survived with only a broken arm, while he remains in hospital.

His wife, 34, who has returned home with her daughter, said she has not yet spoken to her husband of four years about their tragic family holiday.

But she released a statement which did not contain a single word of criticism towards the man who has torn her family apart. Her only complaint was against the media for 'misreporting' the tragedy.

She denied reports that he was drunk when he jumped, and could also have been referring to suggestions from neighbours, subsequently denied, that she may have been having an affair.

John Hogan is still recovering in a Greek hospital, where he has been formally charged by local prosecutors with the murder and attempted murder of his two children.

His wife, a nurse, is being comforted by relatives at her sister's home in Somerset, and yesterday took a walk with Mia shortly before her statement was released by police.

It read: "Natasha Hogan would like to set the record straight with reference to the huge amount of misreporting on this incident. On the day in question, John was sober having consumed no alcohol.

"His action is felt to have been completely out of character for the caring father that he was to both Liam and Mia. John remains in hospital in Crete and it has still not been possible to speak with him in order to discuss in detail exactly what happened.

"Our thoughts are with him as he recovers from his injuries. It's unlikely that he will be in the UK for the service."

An anguished Mr Hogan has told doctors that he wants to die because of guilt over his actions, but a hospital spokesman yesterday denied reports he had gone on hunger strike. Under Greek law, he faces a maximum penalty of life imprisonment, which in practice means a maximum of 25 years.

Last week the Hogan family said their two-week holiday at a four-star beachfront hotel in Lerapetra was supposed to be an "opportunity for us to enjoy quality time together in an environment away from the general strains of daily life." Mr Hogan, who runs a tiling business, plunged from the fourth-floor hotel balcony during a row with his wife, a nurse. According to Mrs Hogan's statement to police, she told him she was going to leave him, taking the children with her. His last words to her were: "I'll take them with me before you do." A spokeswoman for chief prosecutor Dimitris Dadinopoulos said: "He [Hogan] has been formally charged with the premeditated murder of his son and the attempted premeditated murder of his daughter."

A spokesman for magistrate Christos Papageorgopoulos added he would be allowed to recover fully from his injuries before appearing in court. He said: "For the time being he has been fully charged, is under arrest, and has an armed guard outside his hospital room.

"Over the next few weeks we have to decide whether he will be jailed pending trial, or released on bail pending trial."

In a further development, the head of Iraklio University Hospital, Christos Melas, categorically denied reports that John Hogan has launched a hunger-strike and is also refusing medication.

Mr Melas said: "I went and saw him personally this morning and nothing of the sort has happened, he said. He is fully cooperative and physically recovering.

"However, it is true that he is suffering from depression. This is understandable, now that he has fully realized what he has done."

He also said that Hogan's mother Josephine has remained in Iraklio and visits him regularly, to give him moral support.

Yesterday it emerged that three tragic deaths in Hogan's family history may have prompted his suicide and murder bid. His older brother Paul, 35, killed himself 18 months ago by leaping 220ft from a bridge, and his younger brother Stephen died of a paracetemol overdose aged 17 in 1996.


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It goes beyond the family. My thoughts are also with the innocent adults and children on the ground that had to witness this unspeakable horror of watching 3 people plummet to the ground! This man must have lost all touch with reality to commit such an act.

- Fiona, Cape Town - South Africa

I hope I never experience the hellish torment Mr Hogan must have felt as he lifted his son over the edge of the balcony and let him drop to his death.

To say that this was premeditated? I can't help feeling that this was an act of purest desperation in a moment of awful madness thinking that his wife would take away his precious children. Unless each one of us writing in has experienced that exact same feeling - we don't have the right to damn him.

Some people have said that the close family deaths he has experienced shouldn't have a bearing on his actions - but everyone deals with grief in personal way. Some are strong and carry on. Some people don't and they take others with them when they implode. Like Mr Hogan.

- Mh, Harrow, Middx

I understand how feeling suicidal can seriously affect judgement.

Perhaps reinstating suicide as a criminal offence would hinder such tragedies.

- Stewart Cowan, Stranraer, UK

[kizzie]

Since I posted this theres been a lot of talk in British media re. whether the fact that he was anti depressants made him do this.
(Also the fact that his father died then 2 brothers committed suicide.)
Kizziex