Three judges and four members of the public will decide the fate of John Hogan in one of the most emotive cases held in Crete.

For the fiercely family-orientated Cretans the crime is one of the worst. If Mr Hogan is found guilty of murdering his own child the seven-strong mixed panel of judges and lay people will be told that he should be sentenced to the maximum 25 years.

His defence team was at pains to reject several potential women jurors. Eventually, only one joined the three male jurors alongside two male judges and Paraskeri Kiraleou, the presiding female judge. From a raised podium they looked down on Mr Hogan, 34, who stared at the ground from his chair at the front of the packed court.

Greek courts, with an eye on sensationalist media coverage, often rule harshly in cases involving child victims of murder, abuse or kidnapping.

“There certainly are strong emotional undercurrents in this case,” Angeliki Christophoridou, an Athens lawyer, said. “These, and the fact that a tourist is on trial, may well motivate the judges to set a stern example.”

Crete’s huge tourism industry is unhappy with the negative publicity surrounding the Petra Mare Hotel in Ierapetra where Mr Hogan jumped off the balcony holding his two children.

While no formal pleas are entered during the fast-paced proceedings, Mr Hogan was allowed to respond to an outline of the allegations of murder and attempted murder. He also made a number of emotional outbursts before being hushed by his defence lawyer.

Although each juror’s and judge’s vote is equal during the deliberations over guilt and sentence, it is the judges and female public prosecutor, as well as the defence team, who question the witnesses. When the court reconvenes tomorrow it is likely that they will hear Mr Hogan’s account of events in August 2006 before retiring to deliberate.

If a sentence is required, the prosecutor will argue that Mr Hogan should be jailed for the maximum that the law allows, in this case 25 years. Then the defence will claim that the term should be shorter, suggesting that his mental state means he would be better cared for in a psychiatric hospital.

The panel will retire once more before returning with its sentence. If jailed, Mr Hogan would return to the Korydallos high-security prison near Athens, one of the toughest jails in Europe.

In stark contrast to the British system, the Greek legal system is informal in nature. The court doors were left open as television cameramen filmed, and mobile telephones went off in the packed public gallery where coffee cups and food were commonplace.

When Mr Hogan was led into court before the judges arrived, cameramen followed him in, filming him and his relatives, before a police officer ordered them to leave. A few moments later a lawyer entered with a lit cigarette between his fingers.

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