It was an act that defied the natural instincts of any normal parent. Nearly 18 months ago John Hogan leapt 50ft from his fourth floor hotel balcony in Crete clutching his two young children.

Liam, 6, died almost instantly when he hit the concrete but Mia, then two, suffered only a broken arm after her father and brother’s bodies cushioned her fall.

Moments before he grabbed his children and jumped he had had a ferocious argument with his wife, Natasha, 35, who had told him she was leaving him.

Hogan, now 33, who suffered a broken arm and leg in the fall, will go on trial in the Greek island tomorrow for the murder of his son during their family holiday in August 2006.

While the family-orientated Cretans aired publically their revulsion for Hogan – some chanting calls for him to kill himself at earlier court hearings - a more complicated picture soon emerged.

His wife, an A&E nurse from Bristol, initially refused to condemn him claiming he was “a caring father” who acted “completely out of character”.

It then emerged that the owner of a tile company from Bradley Stoke in Bristol had come from a family plagued by mental illness on the male side.

Both his brothers had committed suicide, one torching the family home, a few years after their father, John, died.

In a statement to the Cretan court, Hogan claimed the prospect of breaking up with his wife meant he was “overwhelmed by confusion” and unable to bear life without his children.

“The desire to self destruct which exploded within me all of a sudden overwhelmed my instinct of self preservation and my sense of respect for other human lives,” he wrote. “As a result I lost my ability to distinguish between what is right and what is wrong.”

Adding that he loved his children “very much” he said they were the only thing gave him any “meaning”.

While he had claimed he was “stinking drunk” at the time of the jump, his wife vehemently denied he had been drinking. Her statement to court claims he was “beside himself” and in a “frenzy” after she said they were to separate.

Hogan’s wife, who is suing for divorce, will give evidence at the hearing, expected to last up to three days, using her maiden name, Steel.

Under Greek law, Hogan faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, but his poor psychological state and record of depression is likely to be taken into account.

Held on remand in hospital before being moved to the notorious Korydallos jail on the mainland, Hogan refused pain killers after five hours of surgery for chest injuries and simply lay in his hospital bed sobbing. His mother, Josephine, 66, visited him regularly.

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