Father of Scot killed abroad in plea for justice 10 years on

“I dropped him off at Edinburgh Airport on the Friday and the following morning we got a phone call from our distraught son Brian,” said Mr Mallon.

“Craig had died within hours of getting there. His suitcase was unpacked and his hotel bed hadn’t even been slept in. I remember my wife Antoinette and I getting on a flight as soon as we could. We flew out on the Saturday afternoon. It was a packed holiday flight with people happy to have landed, but I just remember my wife sobbing and us feeling broken.”

Read more: Celtic Connections: Online concerts announced as festival adapts amid covid restrictions

Craig’s father is still looking for some kind of closure and is clinging on to the hope that one day there will be justice for a crime that has torn their family apart.

Mr Mallon, 57, is also calling for more help for Scots families when their loved one is killed abroad and says now is the time for the authorities on home soil to intervene.

Craig, from Coatbridge, was killed in a single punch attack while on holiday in Lloret de Mar on Spain’s Costa Brava on May 19, 2012.

Craig Mallon who was killed in Spain. His father Ian is still looking for answers

Eyewitnesses

DESPITE there being many eyewitness accounts and authorities discovering the group of key witnesses had left their hotel early, local officers were unable to solve the case.

His mother Antoinette went to her grave without seeing justice for her son, with Mr Mallon saying she gave up after their son died and blames her death on what they went through.

“We are nearly 10 years on and I am totally disheartened with it all,” he said. “I just can’t believe that our own governments and authorities can’t look into this case. It killed my wife and I have suffered a stroke and two heart attacks.

“It has destroyed us as a family and my wife more or less gave up. I’m just looking for a bit of closure or justice.”

Read more: Glasgow cop who snared serial killer Peter Tobin leads team helping crime victims abroad

He added: “It has felt like we were one step forward, two steps back the whole time with the investigation. Even when we were in Spain to identify Craig, which was horrendous what they put us through, it seemed as if the authorities couldn’t wait to get rid of us.

“There has to be changes to allow our authorities to help families when a loved one is killed abroad. Look at where we are 10 years on – and we won’t be the last family that doesn’t get answers when something terrible happens.”

Craig had been working in Dubai and his parents had visited him before he moved on to Australia. He was beginning to settle there in his new job when he returned home.

Brief visit

“CRAIG was enjoying his life and had a lot of friends in Australia,” said Mr Mallon. “We hadn’t been to see him as he was just getting used to things. The time we had with him was so brief when he came home.

“He had paid his taxes as a British citizen but when we needed help to investigate his death – where was the help?”

Retired former Strathclyde Police detective David Swindle stepped in and has been helping the family for several years. The case was the first he became involved with where a British citizen had been killed abroad and has led to him being called upon to probe similar tragedies.

Tributes were paid to Craig Mallon close to the scene

Among the cases that he is involved in is that of Kirsty Maxwell from Livingston in West Lothian. She was in Benidorm for a hen weekend when she died on April 29, 2017.

Mr Swindle said while significant progress was made with the investigation into Craig’s death when a Spanish judge ruled as part of an international process that French suspects could be interviewed, he said families are still being failed and asks if this will be the year something changes.

“I have been supporting British families for 10 years now, families who have lost loved ones due to homicide, in unexplained or suspicious circumstances while abroad, but the same issues remain a key feature,” said Mr Swindle, who set up Victims Abroad and has a team of experts to help those in their time of need in other countries.

He said: “It comes back to a lack of progress regarding lines of inquiry requested by victims’ families, poor communication with victims’ families by foreign and UK authorities, no formalised holistic information sharing, investigative and victim support processes.

“There isn’t even accountability or explanation by foreign authorities for flawed investigations and there is also a lack of victim focused processes and victim empathy by foreign authorities, and a lack of Government and Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) support.”

While progress was made in Craig’s case, that was more than a year ago and still nothing has come of it.

David Swindle (back) with Antoinette and Ian, parents of Craig Mallon. Sadly Antoinette died in 2018.

‘Live in hope’

HOWEVER, Mr Swindle added he and his team still live in hope that things will improve, and the UK and Scottish governments will develop better support and collaboration processes with countries where British citizens have been tragically killed.

He added: “Sadly, having been involved in this area for almost a decade, I do not hold much hope for these long-overdue changes happening. However, with the determination of victims’ families, some politicians and charitable organisations who continue to lobby for change, I sincerely hope 2022 will see killed-abroad victims’ families getting the support they deserve and should have been getting for decades.

“The travel industry will open up this year with more people going to holiday resorts and sadly there will be more tragedies abroad.”

In 2017, the power to hold Fatal Accident Inquiries into the deaths of Scots was introduced but it is not retrospective.

A Scottish Government spokesperson said it recognises that it is a serious and emotive issue and while it is the role of the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office to provide consular support, the Scottish Government is committed to identifying where support to families in Scotland can be improved.

The spokesperson added: “We will continue to work alongside UK Government departments and other key agencies to improve how victims and their families are supported following the death of a relative overseas.

“Since 2017, it has been possible for a Fatal Accident Inquiry to be called into a death abroad. This is a matter for the Lord Advocate acting independently of Government.”

‘Real gap’

HANNAH Bardell, SNP MP for Livingston, and chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Deaths Abroad, Consular Services and Assistance, said: “There is a real gap in the consular assistance people think they are going to get and actually do.

“The department has seen cuts of more than 1,000 staff and it has been left without proper resources, but there needs to be real change and a legal right to consular assistance.

“I don’t think the UK stands up for its citizens in the way it should.

“Some progress has been made, but we could go further. Mandatory travel insurance could be something which helps families when they do find themselves in a situation where they need help and might be more likely to get that help from insurers.”

An FCDO spokesperson said: “The death of a loved one is hugely distressing, particularly if it happens overseas, and the families affected have our deepest sympathies.

“Our staff do all they can to help British people in difficulty abroad. When families reach out to us for help, we stay in close contact, offering information, advice and help dealing with authorities.”