A Greek jury took only 40 minutes to decide yesterday that a father who jumped 50ft from a hotel balcony with his two children, killing one of them, was mentally unstable.

The verdict saved John Hogan from 25 years in a tough Athens jail but the verdict deepened the agony for his former wife, Natasha, who broke down uncontrollably, saying that her son had “died for nothing”.

Mr Hogan, from Bristol, will be held in a psychiatric hospital in Athens but could be released in a year if his condition improves. Mrs Hogan, 35, who sold her story to a Sunday newspaper and TV station for £40,000, is expected to start a new life in Australia with Richard Visser, her new husband.

Mr Hogan jumped from the balcony of their fourth-floor Cretan hotel room with his children after Mrs Hogan told him that she had decided to leave him. Liam, 6, died from severe head injuries and his sister, Mia, then aged 2, suffered a broken arm.

When the presiding judge delivered the verdict the translator for Mr Hogan whispered the result to the defendant, who smiled with relief and said: “I’m innocent?” before breaking down in tears.

At the back of the court in Chania, Crete, Mrs Hogan was comforted by her mother, Elizabeth. On the court steps she wept as her statement was read out. “This result was somewhat unexpected and has left me feeling that Liam lost his young life for nothing,” it read. “I accept that an act in a moment of complete madness was uncharacteristic of John but to have done this to our children is unforgiveable. I know that we all miss Liam but it is Mia and I who are left to rebuild our lives without a loving, caring son and brother.”

When Mr Hogan was led away, still handcuffed, he was asked if he was happy with the verdict. He replied: “How can I be pleased when my son is dead?”

It was claimed that Mr Hogan had suffered a psychotic episode triggered by Mrs Hogan’s decision to divorce him. A few years earlier their relationship suffered a blow when he found that she had been flirtatiously e-mailing a schoolfriend.

During a testimony that lasted 70 minutes Mr Hogan, who has suffered from panic attacks and depression since his teens, gave his first public account of the events leading to the tragedy in August 2006.

Dabbing tears from his eyes, his speech slow and slurred, a result of his prescribed antidepressants, Mr Hogan struggled to remain coherent when he described how he had tried to save their marriage but that Mrs Hogan simply did not love him any more.

Remaining seated throughout the evidence because of leg injuries sustained in the fall, he said of his daughter and dead son: “I feel no guilt because I did not do it. This person sat before you isn’t the person who jumped from the balcony on the fourth floor. I already have my son’s forgiveness and I have God’s forgiveness. And, if there was any way I could bring my son back, I would.”

Insisting he had been the “best dad”, he claimed that during the trip to Ierapetra in Crete he had failed to reignite Mrs Hogan’s passion for him.

He added: “Whatever you do to me in this court, which I accept, no one can do any worse to me than I have done to myself. I have lost my daughter and have lost a son, until God decides to take my life.”

His four suicide attempts while held at a prison in Athens, he said, were to try to “put an arm around my son in heaven . . . to join him in death so I could look after him”.

The psychological treatment he had received in Greece led him to realise his mistake was stopping counselling, something he had since the age of 17, having low self-esteem, and refusing to face reality.

He added that he hoped to be free again and become a loving father to his daughter, to whom he writes regularly but he understands that his wife, who he accepts hates him, will not let her see the letters until she is older.

He said that his ex-wife had claimed he was cursed because he came from a “family of death”, a reference to the painful demise of his father from multiple sclerosis three months before his brother, Stephen, 17, killed himself and to how, three years ago, his other brother burnt down the family home before leaping to his death from the Clifton Suspension Bridge.

The public prosecutor and defence team, who quoted laws about madness diminishing criminal responsibility by Plato, agreed that Mr Hogan was mentally unstable at the time of the tragedy.

Returning the verdicts, Pardskevi Kiraleou, the presiding judge, said: “We all agree that he is incapable of understanding \ and is innocent. They order him to be held in a psychological unit for his safety.”

Professor Nestoros, a psychiatrist who has treated Mr Hogan for eight months in Athens, said last night: “If he goes to a good hospital and has psychotherapy maybe he could leave in about a year’s time as an outpatient.”

He will be taken to Athens prison while a suitable ward is found for him.

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