26 Jun 2010

British couple jailed in Spain for murdering baby daughter

British couple jailed in Spain for murdering baby daughter

A British couple have been convicted of murdering their two-month-old baby daughter in Spain after failing to take her to hospital after she fractured her skull in a fall.

 
Torrevieja in Spain
Daryl Waller and Carla Devlin lived together in Torrevieja, pictured, on Spain's southeastern Mediterranean coast Photo: ALAMY
Daryl Waller, 23 and Carla Devlin, 21, face up to 19 years in prison after a jury found them guilty following a three-day trial in Elche near Alicante.
The court heard that they did not get medical help for their daughter, Lucia, after an apparent accidental fall for fear that doctors would detect signs of neglect.
The child died in March 2008 and her parents tried to pass it off to authorities in the Costa Blanca as a cot death.
But forensic tests showed that the infant had suffered two fractures of the skull a week before her death and was malnourished.
The couple, who lived together in Torrevieja on Spain's southeastern Mediterranean coast, were arrested at the border to Gibraltar as they attempted to flee Spain.
A state prosecutor told the jury they were "fully conscious of the fatal consequences of their actions" when they failed to take their daughter to a medical centre to treat her skull fracture. The court heard that the injury is thought to have been the result of an accidental fall.
Prosecution lawyers also claimed that Lucia's parents were worried that by taking their daughter to hospital, doctors would spot bruises on her body caused by previous beatings.
Waller and Devlin each blamed the other for their daughter's death during the trial.
Waller, who moved to Spain with his family when he was 13, admitted to suffering from a personality disorder, for which he had been treated at a clinic in the UK but stopped talking his medication when he moved abroad.
The court heard his condition was aggravated by addictions to drink and drugs. His lawyer argued that if jury members decided to convict him of killing his daughter, they should find him guilty of the lesser crime of manslaughter.
Devlin, who also moved to Spain with her family as a teenager, took to the stand, and between sobs, insisted that she had never hurt her daughter. "I always loved her," she said.
The prosecutor has called for a jail sentence of 19 years each to be imposed.

14 Jun 2010

GERRY'S FAVOURITE RAG SAY GAY KILLER TOOK MADDIE!!


EXCLUSIVE

A SERIAL paedophile linked to the Madeleine McCann case was yesterday jailed for life for murder.

Charles O'Neill has repeatedly refused to be quizzed by detectives working for Maddie's parents Kate and Gerry.
Vanished ... Maddie McCann
Vanished ... Maddie McCann
But the private eyes will now try again. O'Neill, 47, is believed to have been in Portugal when Maddie, then three, vanished from an apartment in Praia da Luz on the Algarve in May 2007.
Yesterday he was sentenced for killing mum-of-three Allison McGarrigle who threatened to reveal he and gay lover William Lauchlan were abusing a child.
Ex-boxer O'Neill and Lauchlan, 33, strangled Allison 13 years ago in Largs, Ayrshire.
They dumped her body at sea and it has never been found.
The High Court in Glasgow ordered O'Neill to serve a minimum of 30 years and Lauchlan, a minimum of 26 years.
Missing ... Jeremy
Missing ... Jeremy
Murdered ... Allison
Murdered ... Allison
They were handed a further 10 years each for abusing two boys aged six and 14.
The pair had been jailed in 1988 over 31 charges of drugging and assaulting young children but were freed in 2002.
They fled to Spain and set up a cleaning business for holiday apartments.
They travelled to Portugal several times.
In April 2004 they abducted, drugged and abused a 15-year-old English boy in Spain.
O'Neill was still there three years later when seven-year-old Spanish Jeremy Vargus vanished from Gran Canaria.

Two months later Maddie went missing - and O'Neill was thought to be on the Algarve at the time.
Jeremy's mother Ithaisa Suarez, 24, and Kate, 41, from Rothley, Leics, have written to each other regularly.
Kate and Gerry have also included information about the Jeremy case on their website.
Last night the McCanns' spokesman Clarence Mitchell confirmed: "Investigators have been fully aware of O'Neill and his background but have not been able to take him any further forward as an active line of investigation."


Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3009422/Life-for-murder-paedo-wanted-by-Maddie-tecs.html#ixzz0qp6EjPpk