The Bristol Evening Post has scooped the nationals to bring readers an exclusive picture.

It tracked down the mother of Crete balcony jump man John Hogan, after sending a reporting team out to the Greek island.

Reporter Geoff Bennett and photographer Barbara Evripidou flew out to Crete on Thursday after news of the Bristol family’s tragedy emerged.

They spent the weekend camped outside the modern university hospital in Heraklion, Crete’s capital, where the Bristol father is being treated.

Many national newspapers, including the News of the World, Daily Express, The Sun and Mirror, also sent teams out, but it was Geoff and Barbara’s persistence which paid off when they got a picture of Josephine Hogan as she left the hospital.

The reporting duo also made a special trip to the Petra Mare Hotel in the popular holiday resort of Ierapetra, where Hogan plunged from a fourth-floor balcony with his children, to get exclusive interviews with holidaymakers there. Six-year-old Liam died following the incident.

Evening Post assistant editor Kevan Blackadder said the nationals had been out in force.

The nationals wanted to get an interview with John Hogan’s mother – and had rushed a ward to try and get a snatched picture, but Geoff and Barbara’s “family newspaper” tactics won through for the Evening Post.

He said: “They concentrated on getting a picture of her as she left the hospital, by which time the nationals had given up.

“We decided that it was such a major story that we would send Geoff and Barbara – who has a Greek background and speaks conversational Greek – out there.

“Everything which we have run has been based on hard facts that we got out there.”

The first of Geoff and Barbara’s reports made later editions of the Evening Post on Friday, with more coverage on Saturday and Monday.

Geoff said: “We were the only ones to get a picture, basically because we waited at the hospital the longest.

“The tenacious approach paid off and we are very happy about it.

“From our point of view it has been a successful trip. We are very pleased with what we have achieved and have done better than the nationals, which have much bigger resources.”

John Hogan is expected to be charged this week with the premeditated murder of Liam, with probable malice, and the attempted premeditated murder of Mia, with probable malice, but there is no indication of when he will appear in court.