This article is taken from the Liverpool Echo’s Website, dated December the 28th 2007 and its by Greg O’Keefe.

A LIVERPOOL couple fighting to bring home the body of their murdered son from Spain are to have their plight featured on national TV.

Gary Dunne, 22, was stabbed to death by a machete-wielding gang in a resort near Torremolinos on the Costa Del Sol in March 2006.

His parents Stephen and Lesley have been waiting 21 months to try to get him flown home.

Now their case will be the subject of an episode in ITV programme Tonight with Sir Trevor McDonald.

Mr Dunne, from West Derby, said: “We’re still in limbo as another Christmas has gone without us being able to lay Gary to rest in his home town.

“This year has led to more and more frustration so the chance to get our cause highlighted by someone as respected as Sir Trevor McDonald is great.

“I have had several meetings with the programme’s producers and they are as outraged as everyone else.”

In November, the ECHO revealed how an old Spanish law is partly to blame for the delay in bringing Gary home.

His family have been told the remains could not be returned within the next four years unless they were cremated first.

And it emerged that an old Spanish hygiene law covering human bodies was behind the delay.

The Dunnes hopes had been previously been raised by a phone call from the funeral director who told them they could have their son’s body back, so they started to make funeral arrangements.

But then they were told the remains of the young father would have to be cremated in Spain first. It is understood the judge who insisted on cremation was adhering to a law passed for hygiene reasons.

Mr Dunne said: “There have been countless incidents of grieving families being messed around by the Spanish authorities this year.

“It just seems nonsense. All we want is Gary’s body back for a proper family funeral.”

The family said they had been told by their Spanish solicitor that there was no reason for Mr Dunne’s body to be held as the investigation and forensic examination were completed quickly.

Spaniard Victor Posse Navas, 23, will be sentenced early in 2008 for carrying out the brutal killing.

The Dunne’s have now contacted MEP Arlene McCarthy, who has contacted foreign secretary David Milliband, and are working with solicitor Rex Makin.

Tonight with Trevor McDonald featuring the Dunne’s case is on ITV1 in January.

grego’keeffe@liverpoolecho.co.uk