Brit holiday worker WAS killed by her boyfriend, coroner rules despite expert evidence fatal injuries were from a drunken fall
Luke Walker denies assaulting Chelsea Hyndman in Crete and told inquest he regrets not making her got to hospital earlier
A BRITISH holiday worker DID cause his girlfriend's death in Crete, a coroner ruled today - despite medical evidence she may have died after drunkenly falling on her own fist.
Luke Walker was convicted in a Greek court of assaulting 20-year-old Chelsea Hyndman and causing abdominal injuries which led to her death from organ failure in May 2010.
Consultant surgeon Prof Colin Johnson told a British inquest this week Chelsea's freak fall while out drinking 11 days before her death - when she landed on her hand tucked into her belt - could have been enough to cause her fatal injuries.
Barrister Andrew Scott, representing Mr Walker, argued the coroner should therefore question the findings of the criminal court in reaching his own verdict into how Chelsea died.
But West Yorkshire area coroner Jonathan Leach said: "The proceedings were in Greece, a country within the EU, with a democracy and civilisation which goes well beyond our own, therefore the trial can not be criticised.
"As a result of blunt force trauma to the abdomen, my conclusion is that of a narrative conclusion."
Mr Scott said after the inquest that Walker's family intended to push for a judicial review into the verdict.
Earlier Mr Walker, now 29, had told the hearing he wished he had taken Chelsea to hospital sooner when she fell ill, but she insisted she was getting better.
He said: "I would have taken her to hospital sooner. I should have made her go.
"I should have stood my ground and taken her."
He met Chelsea, from Castleford, in Crete in 2008 and the couple returned each year to work the summer season in Malia.
Friends said they often argued and Walker was said to have assaulted her on May 12, 2010 - five days before her death.
But witnesses said by that time she was already showing signs of jaundice.
Chelsea was admitted to hospital on May 16 with severe stomach pains and died the next day.
She had suffered damage to her pancreas which caused multiple organ failure.
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.”
Statements from her friends suggest jaundice had begun setting in - symptomatic of the damage to her pancreas - around the time Walker had allegedly assaulted her.
Chelsea was admitted to hospital on May 16, 2010 with stomach pains and she had become jaundiced and died the next day
Walker was charged with murder after witnesses described hearing the couple 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.
In 2015 he was handed a three-year suspended sentence at a Greek Court after being convicted of GBH with negligence leading to her death.
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