KirstyJay
24-07-2011, 15:36
A MAN cleared of murder on a sunshine holiday island could be stuck abroad until September.
Stephen Johnson has been forced to live in the Spanish island of Tenerife for the last three and a half years while awaiting trial for the killing of a Moroccan man.
The grandfather was unanimously found not guilty following a trial that last five days two weeks ago.
But court officials on the island have failed to hand him back his passport which was taken off him as part of his bail conditions.
And if Stephen doesn’t see the travel document returned to him in the next week he believes it will be at least September before he has any chance of being re-united with it.
The 56-year-old said: “Pretty much the whole of the Spanish judicial system closes down in August. It’s just one of those things that happens out here and there’s nothing that can be done about it and nothing much gets done during the month.
“I was cleared by everyone on that jury and as far as I’m concerned they should have handed me back my passport there and then but they’ve been holding onto it.
“I’ve heard that the judge needs to send it off to Madrid and then for it to be returned to the judge then my solicitor and then me. It seems as though they’ve done their best to keep me here for all this time and now they’re intent on keeping me here longer.”
Stephen, who runs a coach hire company in Hetton le Hole, County Durham, became caught up in a fracas in the resort of Playa de las Americas in January 2008. He had been trying to break up a fight in which a 25-year-old Moroccan man was knifed to death.
But police believed he and fellow Brit Bryan O’Connell, 31, from Liverpool had killed the Moroccan and charged them both with murder. Both men were acquitted but found guilty of a lesser offence similar to public disorder for which they were fined.
Stephen said: “If I hadn’t of owned a property out here I would have spent the last three years in a prison cell. We only owned a property because my wife and I had been planning to retire out here.
“Although the people here are marvellous and have been really supportive and I can’t see us wanting to live the rest of our lives out here as I have no faith in the Spanish police. I think we’ll have to sell the property.”
source (http://www.sundaysun.co.uk/news/north-east-news/2011/07/24/grandad-still-in-limbo-in-tenerife-after-trial-79310-29108541/)
Stephen Johnson has been forced to live in the Spanish island of Tenerife for the last three and a half years while awaiting trial for the killing of a Moroccan man.
The grandfather was unanimously found not guilty following a trial that last five days two weeks ago.
But court officials on the island have failed to hand him back his passport which was taken off him as part of his bail conditions.
And if Stephen doesn’t see the travel document returned to him in the next week he believes it will be at least September before he has any chance of being re-united with it.
The 56-year-old said: “Pretty much the whole of the Spanish judicial system closes down in August. It’s just one of those things that happens out here and there’s nothing that can be done about it and nothing much gets done during the month.
“I was cleared by everyone on that jury and as far as I’m concerned they should have handed me back my passport there and then but they’ve been holding onto it.
“I’ve heard that the judge needs to send it off to Madrid and then for it to be returned to the judge then my solicitor and then me. It seems as though they’ve done their best to keep me here for all this time and now they’re intent on keeping me here longer.”
Stephen, who runs a coach hire company in Hetton le Hole, County Durham, became caught up in a fracas in the resort of Playa de las Americas in January 2008. He had been trying to break up a fight in which a 25-year-old Moroccan man was knifed to death.
But police believed he and fellow Brit Bryan O’Connell, 31, from Liverpool had killed the Moroccan and charged them both with murder. Both men were acquitted but found guilty of a lesser offence similar to public disorder for which they were fined.
Stephen said: “If I hadn’t of owned a property out here I would have spent the last three years in a prison cell. We only owned a property because my wife and I had been planning to retire out here.
“Although the people here are marvellous and have been really supportive and I can’t see us wanting to live the rest of our lives out here as I have no faith in the Spanish police. I think we’ll have to sell the property.”
source (http://www.sundaysun.co.uk/news/north-east-news/2011/07/24/grandad-still-in-limbo-in-tenerife-after-trial-79310-29108541/)