THE mother of a North-East tourist who died on the holiday island of Rhodes made an emotive plea for justice yesterday.

Christopher Rochester, 24, from Chester-le-Street, bled to death in hospital after falling from a balcony - due, it is alleged, to the poor treatment he received from a medical team on duty that night.

Five Greek medics, three doctors and two nurses, were later charged with manslaughter by negligence.

As their trial started yesterday, Mr Rochester's mother, Pam Cummings, asked the court to punish the medics for the death of her son.

''I believe that if Chris had been given the emergency care and attention he was entitled to he would still be alive today," she said.

''Instead, his last few hours were spent in excruciating pain, knowing nobody was helping him in his distress.

''My son suffered an untimely death, an unnatural death, but most of all he suffered an unnecessary death.

''I am here today to see justice carried out. It is only right and proper that these people be punished in a way that they are never allowed to let this happen again."

Afterwards, Mrs Cummings suffered an intense 45-minute cross-examination by defence lawyers.

The family claim it took 40 minutes for an ambulance to arrive and Mr Rochester was ''bounced about'' on a stretcher and left lying on a trolley.

An inquest in Britain later recorded a verdict of accidental death contributed to by neglect.

After campaigns by his family and North Durham Labour MP Kevan Jones, who joined the family in Rhodes yesterday, the medical team was charged with manslaughter by negligence.

The trial was halted and eventually adjourned until to-day when the clerk at Rhodes Town Court would not work any longer than his prescribed seven-and-a-half hour shift after it emerged the hearing could run late into the night.