For the love of Christopher

Chapter 18 Diane fighting my corner .

The date for our appeal was in June 1999. My sister, Diane was accompanying me this time. Mum and Jack felt it best because Diane was young and confident with a strong personality. She would certainly cope with anything Maria and Co would throw at her. Diane and I stayed at my mum and Jack's the night before we were flying out to Greece. We went out for a family meal in Farnworth. We tucked into good, wholesome Lancashire food – just what we needed before we left to continue the fight to bring Christopher home.
We spoke about our experiences on our last visit to Greece. We all agreed that the highlight was seeing Christopher and what happened in the court room didn't warrant much of our time discussing it. We had to laugh at Jack going on about KFC and how he loved it.
Jack's conversation nearly always included food and how he had loved the Kentucky fried chicken in Omonia Square in Athens. It was a pleasant evening and we had a good laugh and a good night out.
Diane is a very intelligent woman and as tough as they come. With her around, I wasn't worried about facing Maria or Vangelis as I knew Diane would put them in their place if needs be. We flew out to Greece with a Daily Express reporter named Melvyn Jones. We hoped it would be a successful trip and we set out full of hope and expectation. Melvyn was a very serious guy and very well-educated. He was also very experienced reporter who had covered stories all over Europe. It had only been a few months since my last trip to Greece, with the two reporters from the Bolton Evening News. Getting arrested and charged under the privacy laws after a confrontation with Helen's family, had not been on our agenda. With that in mind, I had a good idea that this trip might be a difficult one.
Melvyn stayed in Athens, but Diane and I stayed in a place called Agia Marina on a Greek Island called Aegina. It was a beautiful island with sandy beaches, plenty of bars and cafés and a place steeped in history.
For the first couple of days, Diane and I chilled out and relaxed in the bars near the beach. We kept in touch with Melvyn, but we didn't plan to meet up with him till the morning of the appeal in Piraeus. We needed to relax and forget about the up-coming court appearance which we both knew would be difficult and challenging. Diane was struggling with the heat and she was getting bitten by mosquitoes on a daily basis. I remember that one night, she was cocooned in her bed sheet with only her nose sticking out so she wouldn't get bitten. She looked so comical and I couldn't stop laughing especially in the morning when she woke up. Her face and arms were still covered in bites so her plan of action obviously hadn't worked. I tried my best not to laugh out loud, but it was very difficult. Diane wasn't amused at all.
Diane and I were very close and we were very protective of each other. She was only small, but she was a pit-bull terrier if anybody upset her. Maybe it's true what they say about red hair and fiery tempers. That would describe Diane to a tee, but she was very loving and caring and I always looked up to her as she was a few years older than me.
After we had had our fun, the time came for us to be serious and it was the morning of the appeal. We met up with Melvyn who took notes about all that had happened previously. It wasn't long before my lawyer arrived – my very pretty, but completely inefficient lawyer who had badly let down my mother and me in the previous courts cases. I wasn't allowed to have my own British lawyer, because the rules were that I must use the Greek justice lawyer even though I considered she wasn't up to the job.
Helen was represented by a top lawyer that cost thousands of drachmas; so in my opinion it was no contest. I felt defeated before I began. A top lawyer against my inexperienced and inefficient young lawyer didn't give me much of a chance. I hated being negative, but that's how I felt.
We waited for Helen and her lawyer to turn up, but surprise, surprise! They didn't arrive.
I was so angry. It was becoming a total farce. Melvyn had all ready seen all our evidence which proved everything Helen and Vangelis had said at the last hearing were lies. I had documented evidence to prove that. I could see Melvyn was getting annoyed especially when my Greek so-called lawyer said the appeal court would look at my wife's evidence then look at mine and make a decision in five months time. Helen's lawyer had already handed her evidence in to the judge and mine was sent to The Lord Chancellor's office six weeks before They had sent it to the Greek Chancellor's office and all my documents had to be translated which cost me a bloody fortune. I also had copies of all my documents and evidence translated into Greek as I was very suspicious of the Greek legal system.
Diane was livid with my lawyer. She yelled at her at the top of her voice. "What about the court case?"
"There will be no court case as Helen and her lawyer haven't turned up so they cannot proceed," my lawyer replied. "The appeal judges will look at both sides of the evidence behind closed doors and you we will be notified about the decision in four to five months."
She then walked off.
Melvyn was disgusted. "This is a set up and sounds like the system is corrupt," he said not hiding his annoyance. Later, he and I went for a drink in a local bar in Piraeus. It was a small family bar which wasn't usually packed out, so we were able to discuss the day's events in peace and without being interrupted.