Four Brits being probed over Kirsty Maxwell’s balcony plunge death fly to Spain ahead of Benidorm court quiz
Ricky Gammon, 31, Anthony Holehouse, 34, Callum Northridge, 27, and Daniel Bailey, 32, are due to reach the Costa Blanca holiday resort late this afternoon
FOUR Brits being probed over the death of balcony plunge victim Kirsty Maxwell have flown to Spain to appear in court.
Ricky Gammon, 31, Anthony Holehouse, 34, Callum Northridge, 27, and Daniel Bailey, 32, are to be questioned in Benidorm about the events leading up to Kirsty’s plunge from the tenth-floor apartment they were in.
All four men - along with friend Joseph Graham who was questioned immediately after Kirsty’s April 29 - are expected to protest their innocence in front of investigating judge Ana Isabel Garcia-Galbis.
The mid-morning hearing today will take place in private as is normal in Spain where only trials are conducted in public.
The mens’ lawyer Roberto Sanchez, who is also representing Mr Graham, will attend the key court session as well as Luis Miguel Zumaquero who is representing Kirsty’s grieving husband and parents, and a state lawyer.
The Brits were summonsed to give evidence following an application by Mr Zumaquero to have all five men in the apartment where hen do reveller Kirsty died placed under formal investigation.
Amazon worker Mr Graham, from Nottingham, was the only one of the five men quizzed in court after Kirsty, 27, from Kingston, West Lothian, died.
He was allowed to return to Britain without charge after being told he would continue to be probed by the investigating judge.
Kirsty, who only married her distraught husband Adam Maxwell last September, is thought to have entered the mens’ apartment on the floor above hers by mistake after waking up and heading to what she thought was her friends’ pad after a night drinking.
most in read in news
Tests have shown she had a blood alcohol concentration of 2.79 grams per litre, putting her more than five and a half times over the Spanish drink-drive limit, but had taken no drugs before the tragedy as her friends and family have always insisted.
Joseph Graham told cops after her death Kirsty was acting as if she was “mad, drunk or drugged” and headed for the bathroom before trying to get through an indoor window and then disappearing from his view as she headed towards the balcony.
He said shortly after his release from custody in his only official comment so far: “I have been advised by my Spanish lawyer that despite me not being charged with any wrongdoing, the investigation into this tragic accident is still ongoing and therefore sub judice.”
“I am unable to say anything at this time other than I am innocent of any wrongdoing.”
Mr Zumaquero, speaking in May shortly after lodging his submission to have all five British men placed under formal investigation, said: “I don’t think Kirsty was pushed but I do believe she was fleeing from something or somebody.
“We know she was trying to get out of a window because of what happened in the bathroom.
“My suspicion is she didn’t end up in the mens’ apartment voluntarily and that she came across these well-built males who Joseph has described as active bodybuilders and include a cage fighter as she was heading to her friends’ flat.
“My suspicion is that she was locked in the bathroom and was very frightened and may have jumped gripped by fear to avoid a worse fate or to escape someone trying to grab hold of her.”
Distraught Adam Maxwell, who travelled to Benidorm recently with her family, claimed in a newspaper interview in May “something dark” had happened in the apartment, in a two-star holiday block called Apartamentos Palma in the resort’s Little England area.
Blasting suggestions his wife was suicidal, on drugs, or attempting to leap into the pool of the apartment block, he said: “Something dark happened in that room - and I won’t rest until I know the truth.
“Kirsty was happy and healthy and had everything to live for. It’s crazy to suggest she killed herself.”