‘He didn’t mean to kill my children’, says wife
The 35-year-old had not spoken to John Hogan since he jumped with their children during the fateful holiday in 2006. The only contact she made was when her solicitor sent him divorce papers.
Mrs Hogan, who has sold their Bristol house, has started a new life with paramedic Richard Visser, with whom she is living in Newport. Some sources say the couple have married in secret.
But, called to give evidence at Hogan’s trial today, the life Mrs Hogan has turned her back on came flooding back.
Initially the nurse remained calm and stone-faced as she stood up directly behind Hogan’s seat to describe how the family had booked their Crete trip in a bid to patch up her troubled marriage.
But as she was asked to recall the night of her son Liam’s death, she broke down.
When the hearing resumed, the blonde Mrs Hogan, dressed in a dark suit, came under increasing pressure as she was quizzed over “flirty” emails.
But it was her ex-husband who snapped first in the courtroom. After she blamed Hogan’s problems on his tragic family history, Hogan interrupted.
Sitting with his back turned to her, Hogan screamed: “She called my family a ‘family of death’ when my grandmother died one month before we went on holiday.”
Mrs Hogan replied: “He didn’t mean to kill my children but I do know with his history of suicide that he should not have taken my children.”
With a parting shot, she added “It was selfish love”, before she returned to the public seating area.
Hogan’s mother, Josephine, 65, who moved to Bristol from Ireland 30 years ago, spoke of her son’s close relationship with his two children.
While he sobbed in the dock, she said: “John was a very good father to his children. He loved them.
“I did not know of any psychological problems, he did not tell me of them. I never suspected any problems in their marriage.”
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