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