Ryan Johnson - Crete

Last updated: 17 January 2012

Ryan Johnson grew up in Penzance, Cornwall and moved to Crete with his parents at the end of 2005. On 11 March 2006, a friend of Ryan’s visited the family for dinner. Ryan and his friend left the house later that evening to go to a bar. Ryan returned home that evening to go to bed but the following morning found his parents had been brutally attacked and murdered. Ryan contacted the emergency services immediately. It took over an hour for the police to come; in fact a TV crew arrived before them. To Ryan's horror, the bodies of his parents were removed on mats, without body bags, while the media crew were filming.

Ryan was formally arrested on March 13, 2006 by the Police of Chania City. The police maintained that the motive for the killing was a disagreement between Ryan and his parents concerning his sexuality. However, Ryan's parents had known he was gay since he was 19. Despite the fact that many family members and friends of the parents could confirm that there was never an issue about his sexuality, the police did not interview anyone.

Ryan reports that he was severely mistreated, beaten and threatened by the police. The investigation was also seriously flawed: evidence was destroyed and lost; tests showed that Ryan's parents had fought their murderers but Ryan was found not to have a mark on him; and the police refused to follow a burglary lead even though items were stolen. Shortly after Ryan's parents' murder, a priest was killed in the area by three men in the same manner as Ryan's father.

Ryan was released from prison on bail on March 16, 2006. He was not allowed to leave Crete and had to report to the police station twice a month. It was not until May 25, 2007 that Ryan was fully exonerated following a recommendation from the prosecutor to drop the charges, as there was no evidence to substantiate any involvement by Ryan in his parents' deaths. Ryan has since left Greece to try and pick up the pieces of his life.