The 32-year-old arrested on suspicion of murder told a judge investigating Mr George’s death on the Costa Blanca he was being scapegoated because he was named on social media
The man arrested after the discovery of Belfast man John George’s body in a Costa Blanca orchard has insisted he has nothing to do with his murder.
The bearded 32-year-old from the Czech Republic was held on suspicion of murder on Tuesday following the gruesome discovery, but was bailed by a judge yesterday after being told he is being investigated as an alleged accomplice. The decision appeared to confirm earlier reports suggesting police were planning to make more arrests and the alleged killer was still on the run.
Overnight it emerged the only man arrested so far told the investigating judge he was being scapegoated because John’s family had named him on social media as one of the suspects. His Costa Blanca-based defence lawyer Manuel Ramon Rives also attributed the decision to detain him to his “recent friendship” with a man he said police were hunting as the alleged perpetrator.
The lawyer told local news outlet Informacion there wasn’t a single incriminating piece of evidence against his client and claimed: “He isn’t involved in this.” The whereabouts of the other man police are said to be hunting is not known, although speculation is rife that he has fled Spain for the Far East.
The Civil Guard has only made one official statement since John’s body was found hidden under lemon trees around five miles from the town of Rojales, confirming they had arrested the man who was subsequently bailed by a judge yesterday. A source close to the ongoing inquiry said last night: “This is the only arrest that has taken place so far.”
John’s father Billy, who returned home yesterday, named a number of people he described as suspects on his social media before his son’s body was found, including a man from the Czech Republic. A spokesman for the Valencian Community’s High Court of Justice, which covers the town of Torrevieja where the suspect appeared before a judge, said the man was released with “precautionary measures”.
They said yesterday afternoon: “The head of Torrevieja’s Court of Instruction Number Two, acting as a duty court, has decided to release with precautionary measures the man arrested in relationship to the homicide of a northern Irish citizen whose body was discovered in Rojales on Tuesday.
“The decision was taken in accordance with the criteria of public prosecutors. The judge is currently attributing to him a crime of homicide as an accomplice or by aiding and abetting the crime. His bail conditions include the obligations to sign on at court every fortnight and hand in his passport and he is also banned from leaving Spain.
“The court will continue with investigations with the intention of fully solving this case.” Any formal charges would only be laid shortly before trial, as is customary in Spain. The ongoing investigation is expected to take several months, potentially longer if the court probing John’s death has to resort to issuing international arrest warrants.
John vanished on December 14 and relatives reported him missing when he failed to catch a scheduled flight home four days. By December 23 the dad-of-two’s family had launched a GoFundMe campaign to aid a search, voicing concerns he had been the victim of a crime.
John’s brother Darren travelled to Alicante to help in the search with their parents, Billy and Sharon, and sister Courtney and Caitlin, along with up to 50 friends and wider family from Northern Ireland. On January 1 members of K9 Search And Rescue NI, a volunteer canine search team, joined the search.