Murders in Spain: Two men quizzed by judge

<a href=icnorthwales.icnetwork.co.uk>Source Mar 28 2003 By Hugo Duncan In Spain   A SPANISH judge was last night questioning two men arrested in connection with the murder of North Wales couple Tony and Linda O'Malley.

The pair, known only as Jorge RS and Jose Antonio UG, were taken handcuffed and in separate squad cars from Valencia Police HQ to the Palace of Justice complex, a mile away.

The Venezuelans, believed to be brothers-in-law and aged 53 and 38, were being quizzed about the disappearance and death of the Llangollen couple.

They vanished mysteriously while house-hunting for a holiday home on the Costa Blanca last September.

The legal interrogation of the two men was held behind closed doors at Valencia' s central court building.

Two other judges, one at Benidorm, where the couple had been staying before they disappeared, and Alcoy, where police claim they were killed, will also quiz the suspects. The process is expected to continue for several days.

The suspects were taken from a door at the back of the station and pushed into the back of the cars.

Jorge RS was heavily built with swept back, wavy hair and a puffy face. He kept his head bowed as he was led to the car. His younger accomplice, Jose Antonio, turned to hide his face.

It is thought Tony, 42, and his wife Linda, 55, were lured to a villa in Alcoy, in the mountains above Benidorm, where they were held in a cellar for up to two weeks before being killed - probably shot - and buried.

The men and their wives, all thought to be from Venezuela, were arrested on Tuesday at a flat in El Saler - 30 minutes from Valencia.

Documents linking them to the O'Malleys, including passports and a car registration plate, along with a gun, were in the hands of the Valencian judge last night.

Neighbours of the suspects were coming to terms with the horrifying tale last night.

Filipe Guardiola and Ana Gomez, live on the fourth floor of the Az Bola De Puchol, three floors below number 25 where the suspects were arrested.

Filipe, 22, said he thought the wives, who were bailed by police in Valencia, had returned to the flat although yesterday it was deserted.

Filipe said: "We heard the men were renting buildings and then putting them up for sale. When people came to look at the house they checked out if they had any money.

"We were very surprised when the police turned up. I have met one of the women and she seemed very nice, very normal. Everyone here is talking about it."

The majority of the flats are owned by Spaniards but yesterday the 14-storey block was almost deserted.

Filipe said only some of the flats were used outside the summer months.

The block, one of five in the immediate area, is a few hundred yards from the sea and has a private swimming pool.

Filipe said: "I met one of the men once. He seemed ok.

"I think he was in telecommunications - he had a lot of computers."

He said four police cars, two from Interpol and two Spanish, took one of the men away on Tuesday morning and the other that afternoon.

He said: "I didn't know what it was for but then Ana's mum phoned and said it was about the missing British people. We couldn't believe it."

The bodies of the British couple were found buried under the cement floor of the villa which lies inland from the booming resort of Benidorm on Spain's south east coast.

It is thought they were kept prisoner while Mr O'Malley was taken frequently to cash points and forced to make major withdrawals.

They are thought to have met the men after reading a for sale advert for the villa in the Costa Blanca News, an English language weekly published in Benidorm.

The villa was not owned by the men but hired with the intent of defrauding would-be buyers, accord-ing to police.

Benidorm was in a state of shock last night as the full horror of the kidnapping and horrific murders sank in amongst locals and ex-pats.

"People just can't believe that something so horrific could happen here. They are talking of little else," said a Spanish receptionist at the popular Hotel Rio Park.

Danny Collins, the news editor of the English language weekly newspaper, the Costa Blanca News, said: "We know there are property scams. They go on all the time. But this is something else.

"To do these things to people and then kill them for 20 grand or so - it's bestial."

One estate agent in the town said: "The news is just getting around. People are horrified, absolutely shocked.

"But I don't think it will affect Britons buying property. This was just an awful, one-off incident. I think people will be sensible enough to realise that."

One of the last people to see Mr and Mrs O'Malley before they disappeared was property dealer Joanne Miles who has since returned to Britain and says she has become a close friend of Tony O'Malley's brother Bernard.

Speaking from her Manchester home she said: "Bernard is very wobbly. He had mentally prepared himself for news of something like this but it has hit him a lot harder than he expected."