Luke Walker set to be granted bail

A Black Country man accused of beating his girlfriend to death in Greece will be out of jail within three weeks, it emerged today.

Luke Walker, aged 22, of Brierley Hill, has been in custody since May charged with murdering 20-year-old Chelsea Hyndman.

However his family today revealed the public prosecutor who rejected a previous bail application, has dropped her opposition.

A bail hearing will be held as a formality in the next 12 working days.

Luke's father Patrick, who runs Brierley Hill-based Walker's Electrics, said the family were "ecstatic".

"We're just counting down the minutes now," he said.

"It's just such an amazing thing to happen. We thought we had a long fight ahead of us. Hopefully it means they're starting to realise he's innocent."

He said bail would be granted on the condition that Walker remained in Crete.

"That's not ideal of course, but we're just happy he'll be out," Mr Walker added.

"Luke is completely on edge at the moment. He so desperately wants to be out but we've had setback after setback, and he can't dare to believe it."

Miss Hyndman, from Castleford, Yorkshire, died in intensive care after an emergency operation for ruptured internal organs, which Greek doctors claimed were caused by physical violence.

Initial reports from Greek police also claimed Miss Hyndman had been covered in bruises and cuts, which they said were caused by Walker.

However, Walker claims she was hurt when she fell heavily down some stairs on a girls' night out.

The family have been fighting to get vital medical evidence from the Cretian pathologist, including photographs of Miss Hyndman's injuries, and a report from the operation.

They claim the results of two further post mortem examinations carried out in the UK reveal Miss Hyndman suffered just one injury rather than many, supporting Walker's argument.

The couple had returned to the resort of Malia to find work after meeting there three years ago.