Heraklion resort death: West Sussex man guilty of manslaughter

BBC — Three judges and four jurors took less than an hour to find a 25-year-old club promoter guilty of first-degree manslaughter after a trial at the Court of First Instance in Heraklion on Tuesday.

Harrow pupil Archie Lloyd was celebrating the end of his A-level exams with friends in Malia, Crete, when he was struck on 6 August 2015.

The 18-year-old, from Micheldever, Hampshire, returned to his villa but was later found dead in bed.

Sebastian Trabucatti, 25, from West Sussex, was given a suspended four-year prison sentence by the court.

Giving evidence, he admitted “slapping” Mr Lloyd after the teenager told him “one day you will work for me” during a row.

The defendant, who cried throughout most of the hearing, denied being responsible for the death.

The court heard Trabucatti assaulted the teenager and a friend during a drunken row in the popular resort.

Medics treated Mr Lloyd outside the Cloud Nine club before allowing him to return to a villa in nearby Sissi.

A few hours later friends found him dead with blood on his pillow.

Trabucatti, who told the court he lived in Haywards Heath, said he had felt threatened during the row.

“I never expected anything like this to ever happen,” he told the court in Heraklion.

Mr Lloyd’s family, who had travelled to Crete to give evidence in the case, said they were “pleased” with the outcome.

In a statement, they said: “We have been waiting almost three years for the day when Archie’s attacker was brought to justice and we are relieved that this moment has finally come.

“Sebastian Trabucatti took our wonderful son, brother and friend away from us when he attacked him, shattering many lives as a result.”