We spent 17 years fighting for the truth about our mother's murder

ByKatie Hunter

BBC ScotlandReporting fromNeapoli, Crete

Updated 1 minute ago

It started with a phone call from Interpol in 2009.

Officials had contacted Jean Hanlon's parents to say their 53 year-old-daughter was missing in Crete.

Jean's youngest son Michael Porter got a call from his older brother Robert to tell him the news: "I was like, what do you mean she's missing?"

The lives of three brothers from Dumfries were about to change in ways they could never have predicted.

"I was automatically thinking the worst but didn't know what the worst was," Michael said.

Jean Hanlon had been due to babysit a child with learning disabilities in Crete and when she didn't turn up alarm bells rang.

"The one thing mum was very good at was being loyal. She always gave everybody everything and stuck to her word." Michael recalled.

He was living in Mansfield at the time and his two brothers Robert and David were in Dumfries. The three of them got on a plane to Crete.

"I wouldn't say we're all emotional people but that was a powerful, emotional moment where we didn't say anything. We just kind of hugged, cried and it was the quietest plane journey ever because what could we say?"

The brothers had been told the body of a woman in her 30s had been recovered from water in Heraklion. Their mum was in her early 50s so while they were sad for another family they still had some hope.

All the same they were taken to see if the body was Jean. Michael saw his mum's clothes in a pile and said they were instantly recognisable.

His brothers Robert and David had experience of working in hospitals and were trying to prepare him for what he was about to see: "As much as I appreciated that, if this was mum, this was going to be the last time I saw her."

Suspicious injuries

Nothing could have prepared the three brothers for what they saw: "You couldn't possibly touch or hug her or anything and I think that was the hard part."

The brothers were instantly suspicious. There were reports their mother had been seen with a man in a nearby café in Heraklion the night she went missing and they didn't believe the injuries she had, including a blow to the back of the head, were the result of an accident.

The Greek authorities originally ruled that hear death was accidental but they pushed for a second review of the post-mortem report. That took time but within two years it revealed injuries consistent with a struggle.

"It just infuriates me that if we hadn't kept fighting we would never have known about all those other injuries," Michael said.

The brothers' campaign for justice was under way.

Jean had worked for the NHS in Scotland, but her first holiday abroad, to Crete at the age of 40, helped convince her to try something different.

She worked for a time in the travel industry, before moving to Greece, working in tavernas. It was "her place" - she loved Crete and its people, which made her violent death there all the more shocking.

"It's the duty of the living to speak up for the dead," Michael said. That's a line he has repeated during hundreds of media interviews since 2009.

In the following years the Greek authorities would close and then reopen the case four times. Two men were falsely accused of involvement in Jean Hanlon's death.

The case appeared on the Greek equivalent of Crimewatch but every time the investigation looked to be gaining momentum it would hit a brick wall.

In 2019 Michael, and Robert's daughter Rebecca travelled back to Crete to highlight Jean's case and raise awareness. A number of British and Greek journalists covered the trip but there was no conclusive breakthrough as a result.

Michael said the fight has been endless: "You can't describe what it does to you…my motivation every day was to think of something new to keep it [his mum's story] fresh to get people's attention, to come up with another fundraising idea."

The turning point came late in 2023 when the brothers decided to hire a private investigator called Haris Veramon who worked with his colleague Nikos Arkoulis.

He took on the case with a fresh pair of eyes and focused on Jean Hanlon's diary. In it she mentioned a man who she had briefly dated at the start of 2009 but she ended the relationship.

The investigators said that Jean's diary along with other evidence led them to believe the suspect was a "rejected stalker" who didn't accept the separation and wrongly believed she was having a relationship with another man.

Veramon spoke to witnesses and went over old testimony. One of the key questions in this case was who Jean Hanlon was with in Café Marina the night she went missing.

There was no CCTV, no DNA but the private investigator's report concluded she had been out with the suspect.

Veramon's report was enough to get the case to court.

Seventeen years after identifying their mother's body Michael, Robert and David were back in Crete to face the man accused of murdering her.

All three gave evidence at the start of the trial. They believed their mum had politely broken up with the suspect but he continued to "bully her."

A turning point on day two of the trial was when the suspect's sister gave evidence. She said her brother had been diagnosed with mental health conditions and if he didn't take his medication he would become aggressive. The prosecution case was that he hadn't been taking his medication during his time with Jean Hanlon.

The suspect's evidence was contradictory. At one point he said they had only been together four or five days despite Jean's diary suggesting it was longer than that.

Some of the most difficult evidence for Michael, Robert and David to listen to was that of a forensic pathologist.

She told the trial the most likely cause of death was a blow to the back of the head and that in her opinion Jean Hanlon would still have been alive when she was placed in the water.

In the end it took a mixed jury of judges and members of the public around three hours to unanimously convict the suspect of murdering Jean Hanlon, albeit the court acknowledged his diminished responsibility because of mental health illness.

Michael, Robert and David were in tears, and not for the first time during this trial. After 17 years a man had finally been convicted of murdering their mum.

He was sentenced to 10 years in prison but won't go to jail until after his appeal is heard.

Under Greek law a convicted person is not usually named until the end of the legal process and that includes an appeal.

Outside court the brothers spoke to journalists.

Michael said he was happy and relieved his mum was finally free: "We've all fought so hard for this day."

But all three brothers were concerned the convicted man hadn't been sent straight to prison: "It's disappointing that he's free until the appeal. Everybody has a right but that is sad and worrying for us," Michael added.

'I'm grateful mum's voice was heard'

Robert Porter, Jean's eldest son said: "I'm just grateful that a roomful of strangers just listened to my mum's voice and came to the right decision…ultimately it is a victory and I'm grateful mum's voice was heard.

Jean's middle son David Porter said: "I'm very happy it's came to a near end although I'd rather the person was in prison."

Their lawyer Aspostolos Xiritakis has worked with the family since 2012: "This is the case I have worked longest on in my career. It's a great victory because the family now feel, after 17 years, that justice has been served.

"We could say there is partly a bittersweet feeling because we have a conviction, but he was not kept in prison because it was recognised he has a mental health illness."

These brothers have come to expect the unexpected during the last 17 years. They have endured endless ups and downs and know they still have an appeal to get through.

But for now, after years of hurt, they finally have some sense of justice for their mum.

That call triggered a chain of events culminating in a murder conviction in a Greek court more than 17 years later.