Brit holiday worker Chelsea Hyndman whose boyfriend was convicted over her sudden death, ‘may have suffered fatal injuries in accidental fall 11 days earlier’
Chelsea Hyndman, 20, died after suffering severe abdominal injuries while living on the Greek island of Crete with Luke Walker, who was charged with her murder
A BRITISH holiday worker whose boyfriend was convicted over her sudden death may have suffered fatal injuries in accidental fall 11 days earlier, an inquest has heard.
Chelsea Hyndman, 20, died after suffering severe abdominal injuries while living on the Greek island of Crete with Luke Walker, who was charged with her murder in May 2010.
When the case came to court in May 2013, the charge was reduced to grievous bodily harm leading to the death of Chelsea, from Castleford, West Yorkshire.
Walker, from Brierley Hill, West Mids., was convicted last year and given a three-year suspended sentence by a court in Crete.
But giving evidence on the first day of a British inquest into her death, Prof Colin Johnson - a consultant surgeon and a specialist on the pancreas - said a fall while out drinking with friends 11 days before she died may have triggered her deteriorating health.
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Witnesses claimed Chelsea had a bottle in one hand while her left hand was in her belt as she adjusted her clothing, and so fell straight "like a plank" without putting her hands out in front of her.
Prof Johnson claimed that her left fist caught in her belt could have been enough to cause the damage to her pancreas, which eventually caused multiple organ failure.
He told Wakefield Coroner's Court, West Yorks.,: "In the case of someone who is drunk and the abdominal muscles relaxing, falling on the fist is sufficient to suppress the pancreas and cause the injury. Falling in the way described is sufficient."
Chelsea was admitted to hospital on May 16, 2010 with stomach pains and she had become jaundiced. Despite emergency surgery, she died the next day.
Asked by the area coroner, Jonathan Leach, if he thought it was more likely the fall or an assault, Prof Johnson said: "I do not think with the state of the injuries it's really possible to say one way or another."
Chelsea had met Walker while working on the resort in 2008 before they began a relationship in the summer of 2009.
Walker was charged with her murder after witnesses described hearing them arguing after a night out in Malia in the early hours of May 12, 2010.
The court in Greece was told neighbours heard shouting and furniture being moved in the couple's room.
He had always denied killing her and said she sustained injuries after falling on a beer glass on a night out.
The inquest continues.
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