Family anguish: Accused freed on bail after first day of Greek trial ends in farce

Chelsea Hyndman, 20, of Castle-ford, died after she was taken to hospital with abdominal pains in May 2010.

Greek prosecutors claim that she was beaten to death by her 24-year-old boyfriend Luke Walker, who has always denied her murder.

But yesterday the first day of the trial lasted less than an hour before being adjourned to a later unknown date because key prosecution witnesses had not been summoned.

The court then granted Walker, who has spent the last two-and-a-half years in Crete, five months of which were in jail, permission to return to Britain.

Speaking from their hotel room in Crete, Neil Lorriman, the partner of Chelsea’s mother Heather, told the Yorkshire Post the family were “extremely frustrated” by the decision.

“It is difficult to take and obviously not what we were expecting,” he said. “We never even got the chance to say anything.

“We are looking at our options now to find out where we go from here.”

The family have been actively raising a fighting fund in the community to help pay legal costs and for an interpreter, with the Wilkinson’s store in Castleford, where Heather Hyndman works, donating several thousands pounds.

Her colleague Lynn Gray said: “Heather will be devastated by this.

“She was just looking forward to the chance to fight for Chelsea. It is the last thing that she can do for her.

“We were hoping that this would be finally over for her – obviously it will be a lot longer now.”

Many of the witnesses who attended yesterday’s postponed trial had flown in from Britain, with the Hyndman family watching proceedings from the front rows of the public gallery.

After the four jurors were sworn in, Walker, of Brierley Hill, near Dudley, West Midlands, spoke through an interpreter to confirm his identity.

He gave his occupation as an electrician and told the three judges he lived in Stalis, a coastal resort in Crete.

Walker has always insisted that his girlfriend fell during a night out in the nearby resort town of Malia, where the pair were living and working as bar staff.

Speaking after the hearing, he said: “I expected the trial to go ahead today – I thought this would be it now.

“I haven’t even thought about what I’ll do when I get home.

“All I want to do is clear my name.”