Javea murder appeal for Britons rejected

Last Thursday March 24 it was announced that the Supreme Court of Spain had turned down an appeal lodged by two Britons in 2010, who were jailed for the murder of another British national in 2006.

Ironically, this was the day on which the Euro Weekly News published the second and supposedly final chapter of The Javea Murder Story, a behind the scenes investigation into the events leading up to the arrest and conviction of the two men, Lindsey Frampton Slade and Adrian Marshall, for what was described by the UK press at the time as a ‘Vicious and horrific murder.’

During our investigation, we uncovered many disturbing aspects that questioned the authorities handling of the case.

This included initially holding Lindsey Slade incommunicado for seven days without charges, while his distraught wife Rita had filed a missing persons report, a four year gap between being jailed on suspicion of murder in 2006 to court proceedings and ultimate conviction in 2010 and a total lack of information between the authorities, the accused and their families throughout the period.

A situation that was perpetuated through to last Thursday, when a tearful Rita Slade contacted us to say she had just heard her husband Lindsey Slade had lost his appeal and would remain in jail for a further 10 years.

It was only later in the conversation when we asked if the official statement was issued by Lindsey’s solicitor or the Supreme Court that Rita exposed the unbelievable lack of sensitivity in the system – she had heard the announcement as an item on local radio news.

Her family also confirmed that neither the authorities nor Lindsey’s lawyer had contacted them to explain the situation, which was especially surprising as he had been extremely upbeat over the last year, giving them the impression that the chance of success was high. Unable to contact her husband until his official allotted phone time, Rita and the family spent an agonising few days worrying how he had reacted to being told that freedom was not now an option.

Finally, on Sunday March 27 Lindsey phoned Rita and after exchanging the usual pleasantries, it dawned on her that he was totally unaware of the situation and that she was faced with the painful task of telling her husband he would remain incarcerated for a further ten years.

“When I broke the news, Lindsey was absolutely gobsmacked,” she said, “we had total silence for what seemed ages and then in an extremely emotional state he told me that mentally, he would not be able to survive in his present environment and would be immediately applying to have his jail sentence transferred to the UK prison service.”

The family granted us permission to contact their lawyer in the hope he would be able to clarify Lindsey Slade’s present position regarding the failure of the recent appeal, his chances of being transferred to a UK jail and why there has been a total breakdown in communication between his office and the family.

Unfortunately he was not available for comment.

By Benny Davis

Read the Javea Murder Stories at our sister site Crime Scene Spain.

Javea Murder story Part one: The scary squatter

Jave Murder story part two: Awakening the dead