The Mail — A 20-year-old old woman working in Crete could have been fatally injured by a fall 11 days before her death, and inquest heard.
Chelsea Hyndman died on Crete on May 17, 2010 from severe abdominal injuries.
Her long-term boyfriend, Luke Walker, 28, from the West Midlands, was initially charged with her murder before it was downgraded to GBH ‘leading to death’.
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.
An inquest heard Chelsea Hyndman, 20, right, who died in Crete in 2010, may have been fatally injured in a fall 11 days before her death. Her boyfriend Luke Walker, left, was convicted of GBH after assaulting her leaving her with injuries that ‘led to her death’
Walker was alleged by Greek prosecutors to have beaten Miss Hyndman, leaving her with injuries which ‘led to her death’.
He denied the charge and it was later downgraded to GBH after the judge at Heraklion Mixed Criminal Court in Greece accepted a motion from the prosecution during the trial after his legal team argued he ‘did not intend to kill’ Miss Hyndman.
Walker was convicted of GBH and given an eight-year suspended sentence that was reduced to three years by a court in Crete in 2015 following a re-trial, which again found him guilty.
The electrician, who was living in the resort town of Malia where he and Miss Hyndman worked in bars, claimed she fell during a night out.
Evidence at the inquest at Wakefield Coroner’s Court, West Yorkshire, heard she did suffer a fall which may have contributed to her death.
Miss Hyndman, from Castleford, West Yorkshire,was said to be walking with a bottle in one hand while her left hand was in her belt as she adjusted her clothing.
The inquest heard it caused her to fall over ‘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 said: ‘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.’
Despite emergency surgery, she died the next day.
During the trial, evidence in the form of written statements read to the court purportedly from a woman known only as ‘Jessie’ and another from a man named as ‘Peter Rogers’ alleged there had previously been violence in their relationship.
The letter from Jessie, dated June 14 2010, said she knew the couple and that when Walker was sober he was okay, but when they went out drinking he was jealous of other men talking to Miss Hyndman.
The inquest in Wakefield heard it was ‘not possible’ to say for certain whether it was the fall or the assault that caused the fatal injuries
It claimed to know of two other times when Walker beat Miss Hyndman and kicked her in the stomach.
George Pyromallis, Walker’s defence barrister, submitted to the court that the documents could ‘easily be forged’ and he was ‘uneasy’ about them being allowed in evidence.
The trial also heard statements from the couple’s neighbours who said they heard them engage in ‘intense arguments’.
But friends of both Walker and Miss Hyndman also told the court they had a ‘good relationship’ and were ‘in love’.
The inquest continues.
