Ryan Johnson - Crete

April 07

Update as of June 2007:

We are delighted to report that Ryan has been fully exonerated. Following a recommendation of the prosecutor, the Court in Crete decided on 25th May 2007 to drop the charges against Ryan as there was no evidence to substantiate any involvement in his parents’ death. Once this decision becomes legally valid, Ryan will return to the UK and try to pick up the pieces of his life.

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Ryan Johnson is a British citizen in his early thirties. He grew up in Penzance, Cornwall and moved to Almirida/ Crete with his parents, Terry and Josephine, at the end of 2005. He has been accused of murdering his parents in Crete on 11 March 2006 and is awaiting a decision whether he will have to stand trial there.

How did Ryan end up in such a situation?

To any outsider the family looked wealthy: they had just moved to a brand new house, they had a new car, nice clothes and jewellery and had just opened a souvenir shop on the main street.

On Saturday, 11 March 2006 Terry and Ryan met Ryan’s friend Andrew Bart in a local bar and picked up food from the restaurant next door to take home. They left the bar at around 8.20pm and had dinner at home with Ryan’s mother Josephine.

Ryan and his friend left the house around 9.15pm to meet friends at a bar, where they arrived ten minutes later and stayed until 12.30am when Ryan returned home and went to sleep immediately. The house had not been locked as his parents were inside.

When Ryan woke up the next morning, he went downstairs, and started cleaning up the living room and kitchen. At around 1 pm, Ryan knocked on his parent’s bedroom door, wondering why they had not got up yet. He made a horrific discovery. Both of his parents were dead. They had been bound, strangled, suffocated and stabbed.

Ryan contacted the emergency services immediately. It took over an hour for the police to come; in fact a TV crew was there before them. To Ryan’s horror, the bodies of his parents were removed on mats, without body bags, while media were filming. It was an early indication of the insensitivity and incompetence of the overall investigation of their murder.

Ryan was formally arrested on 13 March 2006 by the Police of Chania City following a statement made by Andrew to the police. Andrew, who gave 4 statements with different information each time, had told the police in his third statement that on the Saturday night after dinner, he and Ryan had left the house to meet friends at a bar. He says they were about to leave when Ryan got out of the car and re-entered the house for 4 minutes. Ryan has consistently denied this.

It has been established that the murder took place between 9pm and 10pm on the 11th March 2006.

According to Ryan, he was kicked and threatened by policemen with fists and guns. He was neither allowed water nor sleep during the first round of interviews which lasted from Sunday evening into Monday morning. They told him he would be raped and murdered in jail. The police tried to force him to accuse Andrew of murdering his parents. Ryan believes that it is therefore highly likely that the police also threatened Andrew to make accusations against him, hence the claim that he re-entered the house.

The police maintained that the motive for the killing was a disagreement between Ryan and his parents concerning the fact that he was gay. However, Ryan’s parents had known he was gay since he was 19. Despite the fact that many family members or friends of the parents could confirm there was never an issue about his sexuality, the police never interviewed anyone.

Ryan was released from prison on bail on 16th of March 2006. He cannot leave Crete and has to report to the police station twice a month.

Concerns regarding Fair Trial Issues

The case is characterized by an insufficient and one sided investigation, in particular

• Destruction and loss of evidence
  Police attending the scene walked through the house with no protective clothing or gloves. Other people were also allowed into the house (Andrew, his mother and step-father, the Mayor and others), thus contaminating the crime scene. Ryan was taken to every room and made to touch various things. He was also made to stand in his father’s blood.
• Failure to submit medical report
  Tests showed that Ryan’s parents fought their murderer/s, yet Ryan was found to not have a mark on him. This evidence was never submitted.
• Refusal of the police to follow the burglary lead
  The area where Ryan and his family lived has been subject to several burglaries during the year before and after the murder. Nevertheless the burglary lead was never followed up by the police, though there are a number of facts corroborating this lead: Jewellery, cash, mobile phones and keys of the house had disappeared following the murder. Additionally, the safe was open and empty and some of its content was on the floor. The father’s watch collection has also disappeared.

Shortly after Ryan’s parents’ murder, a priest was killed in the area by three men in the same manner as Ryan’s father (identified as eastern European style, almost military like). We are not aware of any police investigation of a possible connection.

Latest developments:

Ryan’s hope for the charges against him to be finally dropped was given a huge boost, when the DNA results came back in February 2007 and did not link him to the murder. Of particular interest, DNA of an unknown male was identified on Josephine Johnson’s fingernails. Moreover, testing failed to find any traces of blood on clothes seized by the police from the family’s washing line, and which they had claimed were worn by Ryan during the murder.

It has just been confirmed that the investigation is finished and the case file is closed. It is now up to the prosecutor to propose to the council of judges to either drop the charges or to request that Ryan stands trial.