A FOREIGN Office minister will intervene in a 14-year controversy over the death of a North-East man in Greece – after describing its Government’s behaviour as “incredulous”.

Hugo Swire vowed to lobby the Greek ambassador in London, to push for progress in the case of 24-year-old Christopher Rochester, from Chester-le-Street.

Answering a Commons debate, Mr Swire said he could not “interfere with Greek law” after Kevan Jones, the North Durham MP, accused Greece of the “suppression” of evidence.

But he criticised its ambassador for failing to respond to Mr Jones’s inquiry about Christopher’s death, almost 15 years after a balcony fall on the island of Rhodes.

Since 2000, his parents, Pam and George Cummings, have been locked in battle to bring medics to account for the neglect that an inquest ruled caused his death.

Christopher’s body was returned to Britain minus a kidney, which the family believes was removed to cover up the cause of his death.

An organ was eventually sent, but was found by a DNA test to belong to someone else – and the Greek authorities have refused the family a full report into a second, independent test.

Mr Swire said: “I am more than happy to write to the Greek ambassador. I am incredulous that the ambassador has not replied.

“I shall point out to him as soon as possible that the honourable gentleman still awaits a response. I will also ask our embassy in Athens to press the Rhodes public prosecutor’s office.”

Mr Swire offered his “deepest sympathies” to Christopher’s parents, saying: “The uncertainty that has gone on for far too long.”

Speaking after the debate, Mr Jones described the response as “slow movement forward” – stating his intention to seek his own meeting with the Greek ambassador.

Mr Jones said: “They hope the family will go away, but they will not go away – and neither will I."