It is the stuff of nightmares. The phone rings. It’s an unexpected call from your son on the other side of the world, writes our Dudley man Mark Mudie.

His girlfriend of three years has died suddenly. That, you would think, is bombshell dropped.

But there’s more. He’s calling from a prison cell, suspected of her murder.

The Walker family from Brierley Hill is living out this worst of nightmares, with seemingly no prospect of waking up any time soon.

The predicament of popular Luke Walker and his family has pricked the public consciousness, with more than 3,000 people signed up to a Facebook group proclaiming his innocence.

Widespread disbelief at the allegations Walker is facing is of course at the core of this defiant show of support. Friends vow the Walker they know could not possibly have beaten to death Chelsea Hyndman, the love of his life with whom he was so smitten.

But the headlines have captured a wider audience and the public mood has hardened to indignation as a result of the perceived injustices of a legal system foreign in geography and alien in appearance.

Exposed to the glare of British scrutiny, the practices of the Greek police and courts raise alarming concerns about inconsistencies in standards of justice on the international stage.

The pictures of a desperate looking Walker being dragged across a street and hurried up the stairs of a courthouse made uncomfortable viewing. The revelation he had been moved to a ‘safe zone’ due to bullying was disturbing.

But it is the slanderous statements issued crassly by police following the outcome of an initial post-mortem by Greek doctors which represent the most serious abuses.

The assertion of a police spokeswoman that doctors had found Miss Hyndman’s injuries were “the result of physical violence” inferred, apparently by design, Walker’s guilt. Her subsequent claim “it is said that they often quarelled” was a shameless attempt to stain his character.

A post-mortem carried out by British doctors has since found Miss Hyndman died from a single injury, evidence which could corroborate Walker’s version of events that she fell on a beer glass on a girls’ night out. The silence from the Greek authorities about the latest findings has so far been deafening, and the Walker’s nightmare goes on.

Whatever the ending, British officials would do well to study the script at length to ensure citizens get a fairer deal in future.

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Regular readers of this blog will have noticed a lengthier gap than usual between posts. Apologies for the self-enforced sabbatical, introduced while I poured all my energies into covering the election for the E&S. It was a fascinating campaign to follow, from start to finish (and beyond, as those coalition talks dragged on). In Dudley the Tories won three of their four target seats, changing the face of the local political landscape in an election which painted a whole new national picture.

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The MP who did cling on, by less than 700 votes, was Ian Austin in Dudley North – but only after a dramatic recount which prolonged the agony for Mr Austin and Tory rival Graeme Brown after a manic month on the campaign trail. You couldn’t have blamed them for cursing when, at 5am, they were told to return in the afternoon..