THE family of a 24-year-old man who died in Greece have told of their horror after receiving another man's kidney three months after their son's body was flown home.

Christopher Rochester's parents plan to take legal action after DNA tests revealed the organ returned to them belonged to someone else.

Their son, who worked as a barman, died last year following a 40ft plunge from his balcony on the Greek holiday island of Rhodes.

Doctors in Greece said he died from hypovolaemic shock, but last summer a North-East pathologist claimed the death could have been avoided, after conducting a post-mortem examination at Dryburn Hospital, Durham City.

The news that a kidney had been removed for toxicology tests heaped further misery on the family, but when Greek authorities returned a kidney, the parents paid for tests to ensure it was Christopher's.

His mother, Pam Cummings, of the Garden Farm Estate, Chester-le-Street, County Durham, said: "We are absolutely devastated by these findings. This is our worst nightmare come true.

"At this stage, we don't want to speculate on what has happened to Christopher's kidney, but we want a full explanation from the authorities.

"If that means taking the case through the Greek courts we will.

"The way my son was treated in a Greek hospital was disgusting. He would be alive if the accident had happened in this country."

North Durham MP Giles Radice has backed the family's quest for answers, asking the British Ambassador in Greece and the Greek Ambassador in London about Christopher's death