New move in Costa killer case

5 March 2004

MADRID – The new lawyer representing  Tony Alexander King, who is accused of killing two Spanish women, said Friday he is to fly to London to “confirm” his client’s innocence. 

Briton Barman King, 38, is being held in jail in Andalusia, southern Spain, accused of killing Sonia Carabantes, 17, in August last year, and Rocio Wanninkhof, 19, in 1999. 

Sonia was found strangled and beaten five days after she went missing on 14 August on her way home from a fiesta.

Rocio disappeared from her home in October 1999 and was found strangled and naked. She had not been sexually assaulted.

Both murders happened in Mijas and Coin, two small villages near Marbella, in southern Spain.

The case caused a sensation in Spain as it was revealed British police warned Madrid in 1998 that King was wanted in connection with a series of crimes against women.

British police told their Spanish counterparts that King and the so-called “Holloway Strangler” Tony Bromwich were one and the same person.

Bromwich committed a series of offences against women in Britain and was jailed for ten years in 1986. He was dubbed the “Holloway Strangler” as the crimes happened in this part of North London.

Bromwich changed his name in 1999 to Tony Alexander King.

Police in Britain force gave Interpol his fingerprint details, along with information on his past crimes and his address in Spain.

Interpol traced him to an address in Spain in 1999 — the year it is alleged he strangled one of the two young women he is accused of murdering.

Javier Saavedra, King’s new defence lawyer, said: “We only know his versión and his versión is that he is innocent.”

He said he had not had access to the police case against King and had only heard the defendant’s version of events as well as reading newspaper reports.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news