By Euro Weekly News Media • Published: 10 Nov 2011 • 11:34
TORRE DEL MAR residents this week discovered they had been living alongside a convicted killer.
A 27-year-old man was arrested in Torre del Mar convicted by Portuguese authorities for killing a British expat.
He had been sentenced in Portugal to 15 years and six months in prison for breaking into a house belonging to a British couple in Sobradinho de Alfeição, Algarve, in 2005 with four other members of a gang.
Britons John Turner, 59, and his wife Helen were tied up and beaten. Thieves escaped with two luxury vehicles, jewellery and other valuables, The detainee, a Romanian, was found guilty of strangling Turner to death after the Briton attempted to resist.
In October 2006 three men named as Ioan Rusus, Dumitru Pekura and Vasile Cucicea were convicted by a Loule Court, in the Algarve, according to a local Press report.
In September 2007, the three were released after appealing based on the new Portuguese Penal Code which prevents detainees from being in prison on remand for more than 18 months.
The suspect fled Portugal and settled in the Velez Malaga area. It is possible the suspect is Ioan Rufus, as although Spanish police have not revealed his name, they said his initials are I.R. He arrested near a local bar which is visited by a number of Romanians.
He is waiting extradition.
The two other suspects have never been located by the authorities and it is believed that they fled the country. The three defendants maintained that one of the other gang members, Gheorge Beuca, was solely responsible for Turner’s death.
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