THE retrial of four men accused of leaving former Oxford United player Robbie Hughes with permanent brain damage after he was attacked on a Greek island six years ago has been delayed for a second time.

The quartet were due to stand trial in Crete yesterday, but Mr Hughes, 34, and his family said they will now have to wait until September next year after the defendants and their lawyers failed to turn up.

The family said the delay was blamed on a lawyers’ strike in Greece, but Mr Hughes’ mother Maggie said she was “very disappointed” after the retrial was already delayed from November last year.

Mrs Hughes said the latest wasted trip had cost her family and witnesses about £8,000 in travel and accommodation.

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She said: “I’m totally worn out.

“There’s been no rush to get this case sorted and it will be seven-and-a-half years after the incident when the trial finally happens.

“This is not justice, it’s a slap in the face against the victim’s family.”

The former midfielder, who played for the U’s in 2005, almost died after being hit with a bottle outside a nightclub in the tourist resort of Malia in June 2008.

Mr Hughes, who lives in Croydon, spent three months in a Greek hospital and had three brain operations but lived to play football again.

Oxford Mail:

  • Maggie Hughes with son Robbie

Curtis Taylor, Daniel Bell and Sean Branton, from Horley in Surrey, and Joseph Bruckland, from Hookwood in Surrey, were all convicted of causing grievous bodily harm and given suspended jail terms in 2012.

But they appealed and were due to begin a retrial in November last year, only for it to be delayed because of their lawyers’ workload.


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