Post by PorkyPies on May 18, 2006 14:13:21 GMT 1
Pair jailed for murder of UK couple
18/05/06
Two Venezuelans were jailed for more than 50 years each for kidnapping and murdering a British couple who were searching for their dream home in Spain.
Anthony and Linda O'Malley, from Llangollen, north Wales, went missing in September 2002 after travelling to Benidorm to try to find a property.
They were abducted by Venezuelans Jorge Real Sierra and his brother-in-law Juan Antonio Velazquez Gonzalez.
On Thursday a panel of three judges in Alicante found them guilty of kidnap and murder as well as a string of fraud offences. Real, 56, was jailed for 62 years and Velazquez, 40, received a 54-year and six month sentence.
Mr O'Malley, 42, and his wife, 55, answered an advert for a villa in Alcoy, near Benidorm, in an English-language newspaper in September 2002.
But they did not know that Real and Velazquez, who had placed the ad, were only renting the property and were in no position to sell it.
When they came to view the property they were kidnapped and held in the cellar, apparently monitored by their captors from a separate location via a webcam.
The Venezuelans forced Mr O'Malley to take out 25,000 euros (£17,000) from his bank account and then went on a spending spree with the couple's credit cards.
Mr and Mrs O'Malley were apparently killed simply because it became too troublesome to keep holding them.
Anthony O'Malley was strangled and his wife appeared to have died from shock. Their bodies were buried together beneath the basement where they had been held.
18/05/06
Two Venezuelans were jailed for more than 50 years each for kidnapping and murdering a British couple who were searching for their dream home in Spain.
Anthony and Linda O'Malley, from Llangollen, north Wales, went missing in September 2002 after travelling to Benidorm to try to find a property.
They were abducted by Venezuelans Jorge Real Sierra and his brother-in-law Juan Antonio Velazquez Gonzalez.
On Thursday a panel of three judges in Alicante found them guilty of kidnap and murder as well as a string of fraud offences. Real, 56, was jailed for 62 years and Velazquez, 40, received a 54-year and six month sentence.
Mr O'Malley, 42, and his wife, 55, answered an advert for a villa in Alcoy, near Benidorm, in an English-language newspaper in September 2002.
But they did not know that Real and Velazquez, who had placed the ad, were only renting the property and were in no position to sell it.
When they came to view the property they were kidnapped and held in the cellar, apparently monitored by their captors from a separate location via a webcam.
The Venezuelans forced Mr O'Malley to take out 25,000 euros (£17,000) from his bank account and then went on a spending spree with the couple's credit cards.
Mr and Mrs O'Malley were apparently killed simply because it became too troublesome to keep holding them.
Anthony O'Malley was strangled and his wife appeared to have died from shock. Their bodies were buried together beneath the basement where they had been held.
