From Steve and Lee Dunne (Gary’s parents)  

 A couple of days after arriving in Malaga, Spain for the murder trial of our son Gary a date which we were absolutely dreading,  we had a meeting arranged at the British Consulate Office in Malaga with the head of the consulate Mr Bruce McIntyre and his assistant Rosalyn Crotty.                             

Mr McIntyre informed us of the news that broke our hearts leaving us totally devastated. After our meeting in no 10 Downing Street our Prime Minister Gordon Brown asked Her Majesty’s Ambassador in Madrid to contact Manuel Chavez who is the President of Andalucia (the autonomous region covering the whole of the Costa Del Sol) to allow the exhumation and immediate repatriation of Gary’s body to the U.K.  Manuel Chavez  replied saying that while recognising the dreadful distress the situation was causing the family he regretted that he was unable to to allow the repatriation of Gary’s body and that he must stay in Malaga.

This news just shocked us so much we sat in the British Consulate office in a complete trance, we did not want to hear what we were being told, we could not believe that after Her Majesty the Queen sent our letter to Rht Hon David Miliband MP the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth affairs to know the details of the case, after the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and  the British Ambassador in Madrid got involved wanting answers to questions raised that Manuel Chavez the President of Andalucia a region of Spain that has it’s own rules that he still refused to allow us our son’s body to be returned to Britain for family and friends to say their goodbye’s to Gary at a service and a funeral that he fully desrves, we want Gary laid to rest in a family grave, that way we would have some sort of closure and that Gary could finally be allowed to  R.I.P  

Monday 15th September 2008 at Malaga Crown Court

The day has finally arrived and it is impossible to even drink a cup of tea our stomach’s were just turning. A police inspector arrived at the hotel in an unmarked police car with Rosalind from the British Consulate to provide us with police protection travelling to and from court also in the court building at all times, this was arranged at our meeting in July at 10 Downing Street by Tom Fletcher who is Gordon Brown’s personal advisor. Also at the hotel was a film crew from BBC 1 programme Inside Out they covered the trial and other things like Gary’s niche and where Gary was attacked.     Lee (Gary’s mum) Ashley (Gary’s fiance) Chris (Gary’s friend who was also attacked and witnessed the murder) and myself  arrived at court where we met our Spanish solicitor who led us to the corridor of the court rooms, there must have been about 30 or 40 people mingling around we were told to just wait around this was very intimidating as we didn’t have a clue who they were or what was being said it was obvious to them that we were British and the family of the murder victim. Our Spanish solicitor had gone into a room with some people followed by the BBC reporter and cameraman, after a couple of hours the clerk of the court came out and asked Chris to go in the court room on his own Lee, Ashley and myself were not allowed into the court room this was unbelievable we were not allowed into our own son’s murder trial. A short while later Chris came out to say he had taken the stand and gave a 100% positive identification that the person on trial was the thug who murdered Gary his name is VICTOR POSSE NAVAS of Benalmadena. The police inspector came over to us to say he was leaving the court and for us to get a taxi back to the hotel later that afternoon, I asked him and Rosalind to stay with us as arranged by Tom Fletcher but the police inspector told us not to worry and off they went. When our solicitor came out I told her that we wanted to go into the court room she told is we would not be allowed in at all on the first day of the trial and to get a taxi back to our hotel, we could not believe what was going on it was a complete farce so we went back to our hotel.

Tuesday 16th September 2008  at Malaga Court

Day 2 of the trial and we get a phone call at the hotel to say that we were not getting police protection and to get a taxi to the court. We arrived at the court and made our way to the court room where we met our Spanish solicitor she seemed quite frantic rushing here and there, I was not happy that we were being refused entry into the court hearing again, after a while our Solicitor came to speak to us with another lady who turned out to be the prosecutor they told us that VICTOR POSSE NAVAS had 4 doctors attending the court with a stack of medical certificates and social reports and that we had to be very worried that the jury could feel sorry for VICTOR POSSE NAVAS (who had been a good boy in prison and not had any more drugs) and actually acquit him freeing him to walk out of court in the afternoon along side us a free man, we had a choice to make, agree to 9 years in prison or take a chance with the jury, all Lee and I as Gary’s parents had to do was sign a form stating that we would accept the sentence. I was furious and point blank refused the “offer” of VICTOR POSSE  NAVAS doing only 9 years for murdering my lovely and 100% innocent son NO WAY.           I smelt a rat, I knew something was not quite right,  this just would not happen in the U.K where the judge decides on the sentence  for a prisoner .   I was called into the court room where for the 1st time I faced VICTOR POSSE NAVAS the thug who took the life of my son, I looked over at him staring straight into his eyes he looked away every time he looked up and saw me staring at him he looked down, the filthy scum bag did not even have the guts to look me in the eye, he showed no remorse what so ever nothing, I was asked a few questions like name, age, address, did Gary live with us, and how much Gary’s death was affecting us?  but I was then refused permission to read out a letter I had prepared for the judge and the jury saying things about Gary like what kind of person he was,  his forthcoming wedding to Ashley, his baby son Kieran who was only 5 months old when his father was murdered, how much he was missed by everyone who knew him both British and Spanish,   I also wanted the judge and jury to know how much we would never ever accept drugs being the excuse VICTOR POSSE NAVAS killed Gary, it was not drugs that killed Gary but a machete carried and used by VICTOR POSSE NAVAS it was important that the jury also knew that on the night of the murder NAVAS who had never met Gary wanted to do any British male some serious harm and that makes this a premeditated attack, therefore as the general public were all at risk a longer sentence should be imposed…..   JUSTICE BEING A LIFE FOR A LIFE……and nothing less.

       Lee was called to the room and she stood next to me, I put my arm around her as she was shaking, she was a nervous wreck, she looked at NAVAS who again looked away, Lee then answered the same questions that I was asked. We were then led out of the courtroom by an official followed by our Spanish solicitor, they both told Lee, Ashley and myself to get out of the court immediately, “quickly quickly go go you must hurry get a taxi and get away, the family of NAVAS have arrived and you (pointing to me) are in danger you must leave now just go” the BBC witnessed this thankfully, we left and returned to our hotel very angry at the way we had all been treated Ashley never even got into the court room, and so much for the Spanish police saying we didn’t need any protection that was a ridiculous decision, we had recieved warnings and that was why the British government had arranged the police protection for us.

        It would have been Gary’s 25th birthday on Saturday 20th September so we had stayed a little longer in Benalmadena so as we could go to Gary’s niche (grave)  we took Kieran with us, it was an awfully upsetting experience for us as Kieran still not 3 years old just ran around playing and enjoying himself as children do but obviously not realising that his daddy’s coffin was lying behind the flowers when he is a bit older he will be told what happened,  Ashley is doing a fantastic job bringing Kieran up on her own if anything she is too independent I wish she would accept a little more help at times.          The next day Ashley and Kieran flew back home, Lee and I stayed another 2 days as we still had some “paperwork” to sort out with our Spanish solicitor, after several phone calls and texts to her mobile we finally got a reply with a time to meet her at her office 9.00 am the next morning, I got there at 8.45 am and waited untill 10.00am finally leaving a note under her door asking her to contact me as soon as possible as we were due to go home the next day, there was no call, no text, and no message, she was staying well out of our way for some reason, this was just plain ignorant, extremely unprofessional and gave me even more reason to believe what I thought and what we had been told that we had been “stiched up” in court,  as on Monday 15th the 1st day of the trial completely in be known to us the jury after hearing the charges and statements against Navas had already agreed on a unanimous guilty verdict with the maximum sentence without parole. We felt physically sick to think we had been stiched up in our own son’s murder trial by the person we had paid to ensure a maximum sentence and to look after our interests.

              As soon as we returned to the U.K we made arrangements to meet the North West MEP Arlene Mccarthy and her assistant Suzanne Richards who wrote down all our complaints and concerns to investigate, since then we have had a letter from Arlene’s office to say that recently at a Minister’s meeting in Brussels our Prime Minister Gordon Brown spoke directly with the Spanish Prime Minister Jose Louis Zapatero regarding the repatriation of Gary’s remains to the U.K, the Spanish Prime Minister is going to make enquiries into the case himself and see if they can find a way to derogate the Andalucian rule. Also making big steps to help get Gary home is Leigh MP and Cabinet Minister Andy Burnham who has already travelled to Spain to meet and discuss the case with the Spanish Ambassador and has further meetings arranged with  the Andalucian Minister.

          At this moment Sunday 2nd November and the repatriation of Gary’s remains we are waiting for news from Arlene Mccarthy MEP and Andy Burnham MP.  Regarding our ex-Spanish solicitor we are taking advice from Prof E Rex Makin Solicitors who are liasing with another Spanish lawyer from Marbella to see what our next steps are.  We are continuing our campaign for signatures to take to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg in our efforts to have all British Citizens exempt from the Andalucian rule which has destroyed us both mentally and financially, we thank everyone for all donations received with out them we could not go on. Thanks again to you all.

You can sign the e,petition to change the rule very easily by logging onto the address below and simply enter your name.

  petitions.number10.gov.uk/DECOMPOSITION     By creator Steve Dunne

On Friday 11th July a small party of our family,myself and Lee (Gary’s father and mother), Ricky (Gary’s brother),Dave (Gary’s uncle) Ashley (Gary’s fiancee) and Julie (Ashley’s mother) went to 10 Downing Street to hand in our petition of 50,000 signatures which we have been collecting for a very long time and would like to thank every single person who has taken the time to enter their signature also for any donations.    

Arlene McCarthy MEP for the North West and Suzanne Richards (Arlene’s press manager and p/a) met us in London and accompanied us to Downing Street for the petition hand over which was presented by our son Ricky. After a pleasant journey to London (via Walsall to pick up Ricky where he is head chef at Arbor Lights restaurant)) in pretty good time it then took us over 2 hours to drive the last 7 miles to Downing Street due to road works and generally the volume of traffic,it was crazy and not something I would want to do very often.

When we met Arlene and Suzanne in London they told us that Lee, Ashley and myself were invited to a meeting at one of the conference rooms inside no10, it was completely unexpected but a huge step forward in our battle with the Spanish authorities to have Gary’s body returned to the U.K.  Inside we where met by officials who took us to a room for our meeting with a man named Tom Fletcher he is a civil servant and  the personal advisor to the Prime Minister on world and european affairs.  (which ever party is in power)  Mr Fletcher had a fair knowledge of our case and was genuinely concerned about it,we had a long meeting and left with him promising to discuss our case with Gordon Brown directly who we were told would want this resolving sooner rather than later. We can only hope that we get the backing we need from our government and they use the power of what being  British once meant.

We are going to continue with our signature campaign and possibly spread further across the North West in order to keep it in the news and let the government know we will not stop until we get Gary home and if we need to go to the European Court of Human Rights we will do so. We have been asked a lot of questions about what happened immediately after Gary died in Malaga Hospital and one of the reasons we are continuing this campaign is to call for our government to make it a rule that when a British citizen dies abroad it should be the British Consulate of that country who are the first authority to speak to the family of the deceased to offer any help and advice not let it be a funeral company touting for business and promising the best way forward as unfortunately it was in our case.

You can sign on line at                 www.radiocity.co.uk/garydunne                     

You can also leave a message  at          gary-dunne@hotmail.com

You can make a donation at any HSBC to the   GARY DUNNE FUND

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After more than 2 years waiting we have finally received the date of the trial. On Monday 15th September , we will come face to face with the drug crazed machete wielding thug Spaniard  VICTOR POSSE NAVAS of Benalmadena Pueblo ( a small town 1km outside of Benalmadena) who will be sentenced for the brutal murder of our loving son Gary, Gary was a father of his 5 month old baby son Kieran and soon to be husband of long time child hood sweetheart Ashley Buchanan.  

In Spain you can wait up to 4 years for a trial so we are pleased to get this date so that after it we can then concentrate even more in our battle to get Gary’s body home for a dignified funeral that he fully deserves. Going over to Malaga will be myself (Gary’s father) Lee (Gary’s mother) Ashley (Gary’s fiancee and would have been wife) Julie (Ashley’s mother) and of course Kieran who is Gary and Ashley’s baby son who was only 5 months old when his father who he will never know was murdered.  

You will have noticed that I have not put the Spanish thugs name above, this is for legal reasons but once he is sentenced it will be well published in the U.K and Spain. My wife Lee and myself will be going to Spain a little earlier than the rest of us as we need to discuss certain details with our Spanish lawyers who we have had to employ privately at great expense to ensure the murderer gets a prison sentence as we were told that it is common for the Spanish courts to drop a case just to save the costs of prosecution because Gary was British these details are briefly explained further on in this story under  The Lies,The Judge ect.  

When we come face to face with the murderer in September it will be an experience like nothing ever before it will leave a memory,  an image that will never ever go away once again a case were the innocent victims are the ones serving the life sentence, a true statement once said by another innocent victim Mrs Newlove from Warrington whose husband Gary was murdered by drunken bullying thugs,but it is Mrs Newlove and her daughters who will never forget their court hearings when they faced the thugs who took Gary Newlove’s life.    

We have been gathering signatures lately and have nearly 40,000 which we will be taking to no 10 Downing Street to hand in to the Prime Minister (if we get an answer) I say that sarcastically as I have sent 4 letters to no 10 and not had a single reply which infuriates me and has also embarressed our local MP Mr Stephen Twigg so much infact that he is personally going to hand a  letter from me to David Milliband our Foreign Minister asking for assistance from him, the signature petition we are going to present at no 10 is to push our British government to help us get our son Gary’s body home from Spain, Gary was British now it’s about time my family got some help from the British government.  When we are out doing the campaign it is amazing the number of people that ask us the same question (what are the British government doing for you) ? it is true we are not getting enough help from our government, the lack of publicity and nationwide exposure maybe because Gary was murdered abroad, this could be true. We have had publicity  locally from newspaper,radio and television but hope for a lot more help when the sentencing is over as at the moment it’s classed as a (live case).  The help we have received with signatures,donations and comments has been fantastic and certainly gives us a boost we would like to say a big thank you to everyone out there who has helped and can assure you we will continue with our campaign after Downing Street all the way to the European Court of Human Rights if we have to,we know it would take a couple of years to get there but if the Spanish are going to keep Gary’s body for another 3 years then we will use this time to prepare, file and win our case and get Gary home where he belongs. 

Thank you very much to everyone for all the support we have received  also  Great Homer Street, The Heritage, Tuebrook, Broadway, Speke, Birkenhead, St Johns, Kirkby, Belle Vale and Garston markets, Radio City, The Liverpool Echo also the managers of several stores.     

You can sign online at  www.radiocity.co.uk/garydunne

You can also leave a message at  gary-dunne@hotmail.com

You can make a donation at any HSBC bank to the GARY DUNNE FUND

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We have just received a letter from the Foriegn and Commonwealth office in London infoming us that they have been contacted by the Spanish authorities confirming that they are going to keep Gary’s body for another 3 years then cremate him as they have a regional ruling saying that they can do so, this is totally against our wishes it is devastating news for us we so desperately want Gary’s body /remains returned to the U.K for a proper funeral so all family,friends and neighbours can attend a service and say their goodbye’s it would also be a place where we can go to put flowers down and a place for Gary’s little boy Kieran to go and think about the father he never knew as he was only 5 months old when his father Gary was horrifically murdered by a Spanish gang of 12 with a machete in a 100% unprovoked attack.

Our only hope now is to launch a campaign to take to Downing Street to plead with our British government to put pressure on the Spanish authorities and force them to release Gary’s body,if we are going to have to wait 3 more years we will use the time to prepare a case and take the Spanish government to the European Court of Human Rights and have this antiquated rule changed as what they are doing to us is totally inhumane, mental torture and barbaric we have the backing to do this from well respected and top lawyers  Prof E.Rex Makin & Co Solicitors also  British MEP Arlene Mccarthy.  

We find it amazing that the Spanish can keep the body of anyone for 5 years as they have done in our case and then insist on a cremation, this surely in anyone’s mind is up to the parents or next of kin of the deceased to decide in this case myself and Lee as we were Gary’s parents.

Holiday makers and the thousands of ex-pats living over in Spain will be completely unaware of this ruling as it has taken us nearly 2 years to find out about it and when I asked the British consulate in Malaga to find out when this ruling was last imposed against the family of a British citizen they could not or maybe would not answer my question, this must be changed by the Andulucian authorities on the Costa Del Sol 

You can sign online at  www.radiocity.co.uk/garydunne

You can leave a message at  gary-dunne@hotmail.com

You can make a donation at any  HSBC bank to the GARY DUNNE FUND

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On August 24th 1979 Lee and I got married and spent two weeks on honeymoon in the Benalmadena area on the Costa del Sol in southern Spain. It was a place we both loved and remembered, maybe it was because it was our first holiday abroad and over the forthcoming years we often said how much we would love to go and live there. Why there we don’t know, as we had had other holidays in nice places but for some reason we were attracted to the place.

In the July of 2000 we decided to take the plunge and fulfil our dream and move to Spain. The decision didn’t go down well with a lot of our family and friends, especially our two sons Ricky and Gary. We had made our minds up and booked the tickets. At the time, Ricky was aged 17 and Gary was aged 15. Ricky was living and working as a junior chef in a 5-star hotel, The Mount Murray Golf and Country Hotel in Douglas on the Isle of Man. He was very happy there and made many friends as he pursued his Chefing career.

Gary had just left school, still playing football and helping out in the kitchen at The Knotty Ash Bistro but he was madly in love with his girlfriend Ashley Buchanan. Gary and Ashley were childhood sweethearts and had been together for two years, this all made the prospect of moving to spain all the more difficult.

After many heart searching discussions and promises, Gary decided to move Spain with me and his mum. We all quickly struck up friendships with many ex- pats over there; in fact we were amazed at how many British people where living there! We had a birthday party for Gary with our new friends but he was missing home and Ashley so much that he returned to the U.K in the November 2000 to live with his grandmother.

We kept in constant touch with all the family and in the following summer Gary came out to see us with two of his best friends Tony and Ronnie Singleton. They all stayed with us, it was the first time Tony and Ronnie had been on holiday and they had a great time going to different places meeting the friends that Gary had made. It was awful for his mum and me to say goodbye when they left to go home. Gary came to visit us again a couple of times that year and Ricky came over at the same time it was great to be all together again, but once again they returned to the U.K.

In 2002 Gary came to see us again, this time he brought his grandmother over with him. He only stayed for a couple of weeks whereas my mother stayed for three months and she loved it. After my mother went home Gary brought Ashley out for a holiday. It was great to see her as we had not seen her since we left the U.K. We all had a great time, Ashley loved the place, got to know a few people and we knew it wouldn’t be long before Gary and Ashley would be back. Late in the summer of 2002 during one of many telephone conversations with Gary, he asked me if he and Ashley could come out to live with us. Lee and I were delighted and of course said yes, and then Ricky moved out to live with us! This was going to be fantastic, we had to move to a three bedroom apartment but it was worth it to have both the boys out together. Wherever Lee and I went our friends made comments on how cheerful and pleasant the lads and Ashley were. We were just so proud and happy to show off the happiness of our kids.

You can sign online at  www.radiocity.co.uk/garydunne

You can leave a message at gary-dunne@hotmail.com

You can make a donation at any HSBC bank to the  GARY DUNNE FUND

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Work, Work, Work! We all had jobs. Lee was working on sales for a property company in Fuengirola, but she spent more time back in the U.K, every two weeks was a weekend away. Ashley was working in the kitchen of a restaurant, she started as a pot washer but ended up preparing and cooking meals she loved her new life. Ricky worked for a couple of bars and restaurants but after working for a 5 star fine dining hotel (on the Isle of Man) he was spoilt. Some kitchens in Spain are no bigger than a phone box and the standards just aren’t the same. So he ended up labouring for a building company with a couple of friends. Gary had been working in a small kitchen but soon followed Ricky into the building trade where he started as a labourer but soon learnt plastering and tiling to a good standard. I was working for another builder but soon moved to the same firm as Gary and Ricky with my mates Pete and Deano.

The next year was great with all of us working together almost every day in the sun up in the mountains. It was hot, really hot, we had to take salt tablets and drink 5 to10 litres of bottled water a day! We used to leave for work at 7am and get home at 5pm, none of this siesta business for us! The Spanish lads start about 8am and have a siesta (either sleeping on site, in the van, under a tree in the shade or going home) anytime from 1pm till 5pm. Then they will return to work till 8 or 9pm, no problem for them as it’s still light but something we just wouldn’t do. This was mainly because we were working for mainly British people and they wanted to have their evening meal and watch television in peace or sit on the terrace even have a dip in their pool, not hear a load of builders working and noisy machinery.

One thing we never ever did was drink alcohol during the working day and it amazed us so much when we used to pull up at a petrol station on the way to the job most of the petrol stations out there have a coffee shop inside. So we’d have an early morning chat, a coffee or two and be on our way. The Spanish lads would be drinking pints of San Miguel or Cruzcampo followed by a couple of large brandies, whisky or aniseed. Then they’d jump in their JCB or heavy goods truck without a care in the world, we did our drinking when we got home from work and our van was all parked up. Then we’d make up for all that graft during the day, a couple of the bars we used to drink in wouldn’t collect the empty bottles till we were leaving then they’d count the empties and put the amount on the wall.

Every Friday we’d try to beat the previous week. It was all in good fun. At one of the bars we drank in, the owner challenged us to see if we could build a vertical triangle of empty bottles. We got 15 bottles in length and 6 rows high then one of the bar staff knocked them down by accident and spent about half an hour cleaning the mess up. But it was all in good fun and the atmosphere was superb, all the lads were enjoying themselves without a word hardly ever out of place.

Ricky loved it but was missing his chefing and after keeping in touch with his mates on the Isle of Man, he was offered his job back and that was it, off he went but what a laugh he’d had. After a short while Ricky left the Mount Murray which came as a big shock to us but Ricky had been told about a vacancy as a head chef at the White Swan Restaurant in a lovely place called Arundel not far from Brighton on the south coast, he passed the interview and took the job once again Ricky loved his job settled down very quickly and made more good friends.

You can sign online at    www.radiocity.co.uk/garydunne 

You can leave a meassage at   gary-dunne@hotmail.com

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Gary and Ashley were so happy together that they decided to move out of our apartment and move into their own place. They managed to rent a lovely little bungalow in the grounds of an apartment block with really nice gardens and a swimming pool outside their front door. They spent all they earned on new furniture and decorating the bungalow just how they liked it, it was only a 5 minute walk from ours and right in the middle of all our friends.

They were so proud of their bungalow and it was great for Lee and I to see the happiness in their faces when they invited us around for a meal, or when Ashley’s mum Julie and sister Melissa came to stay with them on holiday. On one occasion when Julie was staying with them Gary asked Julie if she would allow him to ask Ashley to get engaged, Julie was delighted and said yes, so Gary went and bought an engagement ring and hid it in ours. The following weekend Gary, Ashley, Julie, Lee and myself all went to our favourite Indian restaurant overlooking the sea on Benalmadena Costa. We had a couple of drinks and everyone bar Ashley knew what was coming, when Gary being so romantic and traditional, got up from his seat went to face Ashley went down on one knee and asked her to marry him. She burst into tears of joy and said yes we were all chuffed to bits then a waiter came over and picked Gary up the waiter didn’t know what was going on he thought Gary had fell and couldn’t get up we were all hysterical, just one of many good times.

In 2005 Gary and Ashley got some great news her pregnancy test proved to be positive, it was tremendous news for them, everyone in Spain and back in the U.K were thrilled to bits for them. After several visits to the ante natal doctor in Spain, Ashley and Gary decided to return to the U.K. It was heartbreaking for Lee and I, but it was more important for Ashley to feel happy in her pregnancy and not to feel uneasy with some of the doctors who didn’t speak English, and some who take exception from the British people who don’t speak fluent Spanish. Lee and I kept in touch with Ashley and Gary, everyone was getting more and more exited as the birth got nearer with all the hospital tests and examinations having good results.

On the 3rd of October Ashley gave birth to Kieran a healthy bouncing baby boy, It was 7am and I was getting ready for work when Gary phoned me and his mum to say he was a dad and he was at the birth. He was sobbing down the phone with happiness he was so overjoyed by it and above all mother and baby were both doing very well. My birthday (4th October) was the next day, so this was my present come early. Lee got a flight the following day as she couldn’t wait to see Kieran. She came back to Spain on the 11th of October, and we planned for a lovely Christmas back in the U.K.

A few days later we got awful news to say that Lee’s dad had died suddenly, we booked flights to go home for the funeral which was on the 20th, we were flying from Malaga on the 19th but as we came out of our apartment Lee slipped on the steps breaking her leg in two places. She was taken to hospital where she had an operation that afternoon to put two metal plates in her leg, she couldn’t fly home and missed her fathers funeral, I flew back home and saw Kieran for the first time. All the family were devastated over Frank’s death, it didn’t help with Lee not being there. The next day Gary and I carried his granddad’s coffin at the cremation, just as he had done a few years earlier at his grandmother’s cremation.

A few days later I returned to Spain to get Lee out of hospital, she was in a bad way as one of the breaks had complications. A few weeks later they gave her permission to fly so we booked some flights, hired a wheel chair and returned home. We met up with all the family and saw the baby together for the first time it was amazing with both of us kissing and cuddling him. As Lee had missed her father’s funeral it was really important to get together with her brothers and family. The lads had arranged for Frank’s ashes to be collected from the office at the crematorium, and after digging a small hole, Lee laid her fathers ashes next to her mothers. The next day we returned to Spain with our emotions completely upside down and inside out.

It was a low time for Lee and I, we felt sort of lonely, we had friends out there but from a family point Lee had now lost her mum and dad (Evelyn & Frank). I loved them both and got on great with them, thankfully in the same way as Lee still gets on to this day with my mum and dad. We’d had many friends and family over the years come and stay with us for holidays, Lee and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary out there and our friends from home couldn’t believe the amount of people who turned up for the party. We loved having parties and bbq’s on the terrace, but it all seemed miles away now Ricky had moved to Brighton and Gary, Ashley and Kieran were settled in their flat. We were really happy for everyone but it’s strange to say that I felt the writing was on the wall for us to call it a day on our time in Spain. I had said this to Lee’s three brothers Stephen, Frank and Kevin at her father’s funeral. I had also told to my best mate Jim Flannery who knew how happy we had been in Spain. Jim and his wife Shelagh are great friends of ours and had stayed with us several times as we have with them .

Lee and I booked the flights to go back to the U.K for Christmas and it was great to see everyone as it was our first Christmas back since we had left. The icing on the cake was seeing Kieran on his first Christmas, Gary and Ashley were so happy. It was a fantastic time, going out seeing friends and family passed so quickly over Christmas and New Year, and it wasn’t long before our holiday was almost over and we were on our way back to Spain. How I wish we had just gone back after saying goodbye to everyone, and I had kept my mouth shut.

Gary and I went for a drink together a couple of days before we were flying back, and had been telling me how difficult it was for him looking after Ashley and Kieran with little and at times no work at all. Most of the jobs said driving was essential, but Gary couldn’t drive, I had tried to teach him how to drive many times over the years but no chance, Gary just wasn’t interested in driving. Gary knew from our conversations that there was plenty of work where we were and so the conversation led to Gary asking Ashley if she would mind if he came back to Spain with us to work for a short time.

This would go some way in helping them to save money for their forthcoming wedding. Ashley agreed and Gary came back with us. Every night after work and a couple of times a day at weekends Gary was on the phone to Ashley checking that she was alright and that Kieran was doing fine. Gary showed his friends in Spain photos of Kieran and they were all delighted when Gary said he was going to get Ashley to bring Kieran out to Spain in a couple of months.

A couple of months later Ashley did come out to Spain.

But without Kieran, and not for a holiday

 She got to Spain just in time for Gary to die in her arms.

I KNEW WE SHOULD NOT HAVE GONE BACK TO SPAIN TO LIVE

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On Wednesday 1st March 2006 I went out Gary for a drink to watch a football match on television between England and Uruguay which was being played at Anfield. Gary and I watched the match with some friends at Sizzles our local bar in the Gammonals area of Benalmadena. When the game finished I went straight home and Gary went to see his friend Chris at another bar saying he would be home within the hour. A couple of hours later I got a phone call from Chris to say that Gary had been stabbed and for me to go to the local Police station two minutes away from our apartment. At this point I did not think Gary had been badly hurt and that he was merely giving a statement to the police, but when my wife and I arrived at the Police station we were told to go to Malaga Universidad Hospital, when we arrived at the hospital we realised Gary had been seriously hurt when the porter rushed us to the corridor and doors of the operating theatres.

After a short while a doctor came out to speak to us and told us that Gary had been stabbed and that he did not think Gary would survive, but that he and two teams of surgeons would do everything they could to save Gary’s life. In the following hours my wife and I cringed with fear as porters kept rushing in with bottles of blood which we knew were for our son, we were frantic and just hoping, praying and believing that Gary would survive. We could not believe what was happening, earlier that day Gary was working with me and some friends in Marbella saving up for him and his fiancé Ashley to get married. They had been together for eight years since they were 13 years old and had a little boy Kieran who was just 5 months old and a couple of hours ago we were celebrating an England win 2-0. Before the game Gary had phoned Ashley as he did every night to say he couldn’t wait to see her in a couple of weeks when he returned to England.Another couple of hours passed and again the senior surgeon came out to speak to my wife and I, he told us that he had been a surgeon for over 25 years and that Gary had suffered the worst injuries from a single knife wound that he had ever seen. They had had to remove one of Gary’s kidneys. Gary’s liver, bowel, intestine and other organs were cut open and that they could not stop the bleeding. They were also afraid that if Gary did survive he could have brain damage as a result of the amount of blood he lost.

A little while later a doctor and some consultants came to see me and said they were seeking permission (I cant remember who from a special court or hospital governor) to give Gary an injection to co-agulate his blood, and because of the possibility of heart failure or brain damage I had to sign the consent forms to take full responsibility. The surgeon did say to me that without this injection Gary would bleed to death on the operating table, at this point I would have done anything to keep Gary alive and I signed the documents, some time later the surgeon came out to tell us the injection had worked and that at least gave the surgeons the chance to work on Gary’s very badly damaged organs.

At this time I phoned Ashley, she and Kieran were at home in Liverpool, it was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. To tell my future daughter in law that her soon to be husband and father of her child was fighting for his life and to get a flight over to Malaga immediately the doctors said Gary had only hours to live and they didn’t think Ashley would get here in time. My wife and I just found it impossible to think of anything we were numb, we knew Ashley and Kieran where in the flat on their own. Ashley couldn’t even speak how she was going to be able to make arrangements for someone to mind Kieran, and then book a flight to Spain. She was screaming down the phone “no, no, please no”. It was absolutely horrendous such a sickening feeling hearing my future daughter in law in such a state that she was obviously in and I couldn’t do a thing about it I felt physically sick and so frustrated.At about 11.30am and after more than eight hours on the operating table and 88 pints of blood, Gary was transferred to the intensive care department. By this time about 20 of Gary’s friends had arrived at the hospital (he was such a popular boy) later that afternoon Ashley arrived in Malaga, a friend of mine went to the airport to bring her straight to the hospital she was horrified and absolutely inconsolable when she saw Gary laying on the bed with machines and wires everywhere, numbers flashing and monitors bleeping constantly. That night we all slept on the floor of a waiting room.

The next morning the doctor came to see me and said we could go in and see Gary, we thought there had been an improvement but when Lee and I went in to see Gary the doctor told me they could do no more for Gary. His organs where starting to fail and that Gary had only half an hour or so to live!!We were all at his bedside till the end, Ashley had hold of Gary as he passed away, it was 12.30pm on Friday 3rd March my wife and I kissed him and they took him away. It was a feeling I simply cannot describe, there was my wife, myself, Ashley and 20 of Gary’s friends all of us in a state of disbelief and totally inconsolable, we don’t have any enemies only friends but I would not wish our experiences on any person in the world. We did thank the doctors for their tremendous effort in trying to save Gary you could see some of the doctors were visibly very upset and disgusted that one of their own would do such a terrible thing to an innocent person in a 100% totally unprovoked attack.

Gary had been dead half an hour when we were approached by a person from a funeral company in Benalmadena (a tip off from the mortuary porter for a little bung we’ve been told this is usual). After only a few minutes with this person from the funeral company he asked us for Gary’s passport. My wife had this in her handbag, as in Spain we used to carry our documents around all the time. When we asked why he wanted the passport he said it was in case we sold it and that he was acting correctly to comply with Spanish law he told us his company would arrange Gary’s funeral in the next day or two. After many meetings and phone calls we finally got permission to bury Gary in a niche (a niche is a hole in the wall just a concrete box not like a normal grave when the body is buried in earth beneath ground) in Benalmadena International Cemetery and that the expatriation of Gary’s body back to the U.K was not possible at that time. No one could explain why the judge was refusing us permission.

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The funeral took place on Wednesday 15th March at 2pm at Benalmadena International Cemetery; there were over 200 people at the service both British and Spanish. It had been our intention to celebrate Gary’s life by not wearing traditional black, but by wearing the colours or the shirt of your football team. We knew so many people there that I don’t think many teams would not have had a shirt on show. I am sure that almost every city or town in the U.K would have had a shirt on show but we were advised against doing this as some Spanish people might have thought of it as being football hooligan orientated. This annoyed me considering that it was a Spanish lad who killed Gary. The funeral was against our wishes as we wanted Gary back home in the U.K; we felt and still feel that we had been forced into this.

On Friday 17th March at 10.30am I got a phone call from a solicitor to say that the judge had all the medical reports, and that Gary’s body could now be cremated or returned to the U.K. After another couple of weeks of phone calls and false promises my wife returned to the U.K broken hearted and wanting to be with Gary’s five month old son Kieran, and of course Ashley. I stayed in Benalmadena trying to get permission for the release of Gary’s body. This was proving to be a complete waste of time I was so frustrated with the incompetence of the Spanish authorities that I returned to the U.K in July 2006 to get our politicians and the government involved.

Gary had a lot of friends and was very popular; he played for a couple of teams in the Benalmadena pool league and then became the captain of a team. We played against teams from Torremolinos to Fuengirola; we were having a great time, one season finishing next to bottom, to winning the league the next season. After several attempts trying to play golf a couple Gary gave it up and stuck to pool.

The same pool league now has an annual competition at the White Rose Bar called the Gary Dunne Memorial Trophy. Gary would be delighted to know two of his old mates have got to the final in the last two years. Kevin Doyle from the Wirral has taken both trophies, beating Les Souter from Newcastle on both occasions. The Vines run a golf competition called the Gary Dunne golf trophy that was won last year by Darren from Ireland.

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I was aware of three youths being detained by the Police in Torremolinos the day after the murder, but that the person they wanted for the murder was in hiding. I was actually told by the Police in Torremolinos that they were happy to wait for him to make a mistake and they would then arrest him. A police Inspector even said to me that the murder was “a sort of social thing that happens and Spanish boys are racist towards white English boys”. I found this an incredible statement coming from a Police Inspector; he was so unconcerned that it gave me great concern as to whether they would make any real attempt to catch the murderer, how right my thoughts nearly were THANK YOU HOLLAND.

On July 28th 2006 I got a phone call from a friend in Spain asking us if we were happy that the person who murdered Gary had been caught! We knew nothing about this and were completely amazed that we had not been informed by the Spanish Police or the British consulate. We made a few calls and soon found out that a Spanish male aged 22 years had been arrested at Schipol airport in Amsterdam whilst trying to board a flight to South America on a false passport. We have since been told it was actually Interpol who had been tracking him. This was great news to my family ironically it was Ashley’s birthday and she said it was the best birthday present she could have had. The Spaniard was extradited back to Spain where he is being detained in prison awaiting trial.

In November 2006 I got a phone call from the British Consulate in London asking me and my wife to go to court in Torremolinos the next day, they did not have a reason as to why it was so sudden or what it was for. My wife and I got a flight the next day (Tuesday the 14th), and went into the court at 10.30am. After waiting for a legal translator to arrive we were amazed to find out it was only to ask us if we did want to issue proceedings against the defendant and to sign the relevant forms.

We then spoke to a person in the office of court Number 5 only to find out that he was in fact the judge who would be residing over the case. He shook my hand kissed my wife on the cheek and told us we could contact the funeral company in Benalmadena to tell them that he was releasing Gary’s body immediately and to make whatever arrangements we wanted. We met up with the Spanish funeral company and they said they were very happy for us and they would call us in a couple of days. We made several phone calls to family and friends in Spain and in the U.K everyone was delighted that we were soon to have Gary home for a proper funeral but this was not to be.

A couple of days later the funeral company contacted my wife and I to say that the judge had changed his mind and that Gary’s body was not going to be released for sometime. We were totally distraught and very angry; we booked a flight and returned to the U.K. Whilst we had been speaking to the translator I told him that the need for us to travel to Spain to sign court documents to confirm that we wanted to issue proceedings simply would not happen in the U.K, as it’s the purpose of the Crown Prosecution Service. My wife and I were amazed to hear him tell us not to trust the Spanish public prosecution system courts as money talks and it’s quite common for a defendant to pay off a prosecutor or for the Spanish courts to drop a case to save prosecution costs! This has been confirmed to us by a journalist named Wensley Clarkson, who has a vast knowledge of the Spanish legal system having done many television programmes and written several books on the subject. The translator advised us to instruct a private Spanish solicitor to make sure the prosecution lawyers carry out the prosecution in the correct manner.

We have employed a Spanish lawyer to help in the prosecution against the thug who murdered our son. We want a life sentence but we have been told by our lawyers that the maximum the murderer will get is 14 years. This is not a life sentence!! The defence lawyer has already contacted our Spanish lawyer to ask us if we would agree to a six year sentence this is an unbelievable situation.

The thug who murdered Gary did so with a machete, a huge evil weapon it was his intention to seriously harm an innocent victim that night and the fact that Gary was a white British male was even better for him from a racial point of view. He has also told the courts in his defence that he did not know Gary therefore the offence was not premeditated so would carry a lesser sentence. I find this to be totally wrong, the fact that he did not know Gary means that the general public were all at risk as he just wanted to commit a horrific crime and therefore an even longer sentence should be imposed. Surely the premeditation is for the act as he wilfully set out to harm an individual regardless of his/her identityIt is a crazy situation that a case can take up to four years to get to court and the defendant can then be released just to save prosecution costs, this just would not happen in the U.K, and it should no longer be allowed to happen anywhere.

It is obviously clear that the Spanish laws regarding violent offences are not strong enough and that all offenders should face much tougher penalties. The present situation does not deter youngsters from getting into trouble, approximately one in eight tourists are attacked or robbed at knife point in Spain every day, do the Spanish authorities not realise that sooner or later this will have serious consequences with tourism?

The whole of 2007 was spent trying to get Gary’s body home with numerous phone calls, e-mails, letters and meetings with our local solicitors (Rex Makin of Liverpool), Arlene McCarthy MEP for the North West and our Spanish solicitors. We were originally told that the Spanish authorities would only release Gary when the murderer was caught; I thought this was nonsense and so it proved because when the murderer was caught the next excuse was in case they needed Gary’s body for any DNA or forensic evidence. This proved to be more rubbish as the hospital had all the medical and DNA reports that would be of any use to the courts if required. The next excuse was actually given not to me but to a reporter for the Liverpool Echo a guy named Greg O’Keefe. Greg has covered the story of this case from the beginning and took it upon himself to make enquiries regarding the release of Gary’s body. During a phone call to the funeral company in Spain he was told by them that Gary’s body was in fact being kept in the niche for a period of five years, this apparently is an ancient Spanish health and hygiene law and the purpose is for full decomposition to take place before the coffin can be reopened for expatriation.

None of this had ever been explained to me or my wife by the funeral company, the Spanish solicitors, the Spanish courts, the British or Spanish consulates. Had we known about it then we would have never ever have allowed Gary to be buried in the niche we would have kept him in the mortuary this way decomposition would not have set in and we could have had Gary’s body returned to the U.K when the judge gave permission to do so.

We have asked Arlene McCarthy MEP to take this case to the European Courts as the Spanish authorities have breached our Human Rights in denying us our son’s body. To this day we have never had a single phone call from the Spanish police, the courts or the British consulate in Spain and we are still waiting for our son’s body to be released by the Spanish courts. All we want is to have him flown home and to have a proper funeral so all family and friends can say their prayers and goodbyes to Gary.

We have been treated in a shocking way by the Spanish and this is the reason why we are now getting help from the British Government, the case has been widely reported by our local radio stations Radio City, BBC Radio Merseyside, CenturyFM and on television with BBC North West and ITN Granada Reports, our local evening paper the Liverpool Echo and the Daily Post. Radio City have had an appeal to help raise funds that we need and on the morning of the appeal the radio broadcaster Kev Seed and his crew should have called it the Gary Dunne Show they gave it so much air time. You can see messages of support on the Radio City website by clicking the link on the right hand side of our site on by clicking here .

The day after Gary was murdered three youths were arrested and later sentenced to a detention centre in Malaga. The murder trial is due to take place in June 2008 but the way the Spanish are we can only hope that the thug gets a lengthy sentence and we get our sons body back. Then and only then can we try to get some sort of normality back to our lives but it will never ever be the same without Gary. Ashley is doing a tremendous job and being so brave in bringing baby Kieran up on her own and we have him three days a week. Gary has left us a little boy to treasure it’s only a pity he is not here to see his son grow up himself and do all the things I used to do for Gary like taking him to school, play football, going on holidays, starting his working life and going out for a family meal so many things like this. My wife and I are 50 years old and if we live another 20 years then we will have seen Kieran grow into a young man and I know Gary would be so proud.

No parent should ever have to bury their one of their children either through illness or an accident but it does happen, and my heart has always gone out to those parents. When its an avoidable death like murder, you read about it or see it on television and it is something you never think will happen to you, you ask yourself how can a human being just take the life of another for no reason at all and with no conscience or guilt? It is bad enough losing Gary the way we did but having to wait for his body to be returned to the U.K is totally unforgivable. I will never ever forgive the Spanish authorities for the mental torture they are putting me and my family through, we know that a life sentence will not be imposed on the thug when he has done his time he will get out of prison in his early thirties still young enough to have a life in front of him. Gary wont be coming back to us so it is actually us who’s serving a life sentence we will never get over this birthdays, anniversaries and Christmas are times when it’s hardest but it’s always on your mind.

When the court case starts it is going to be so very hard to face the animal who took our sons life, our grandson’s father and Ashley’s husband to be away. I will ask him a question, WHY,WHY,WHY have you wrecked so many lives??

Gary was just walking down the road minding his own business on his way home when he was confronted by a gang of about twelve thugs out with one thing on their mind, violence. They didn’t steal Gary’s money, watch, phone or ring they just ran away having had their fun.

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