UK NEWS

SPANIARD KICKED SLEEPING GRANFATHER TO DEATH ON HOLIDAY ISLE

Victim was on holiday when he was attacked

Tuesday July 22,2008

By Bill Brown

A SPANIARD yesterday admitted beating and kicking to death a grandfather on holiday in the Canary Islands.

The man claimed he had been drunk and under the influence of drugs when he attacked Brian Hobbs, 52, from Glasgow, at a popular pub in Fuerteventura only hours after he had arrived on the tiny sunshine island in May, two years ago. The victim was asleep at the time.

Hamed Mohamed Hamed, from Melilla, a Spanish enclave on the north coast of Morocco, admitted attacking Mr Hobbs after drinking 12 whiskies and taking cocaine.

He told the court that the killing would not have happened if he had not been drinking.

The victim’s face was completely destroyed in the attack

The prosecutor

The prosecutor said that Mr Hobbs had also been drinking, but was sleeping at a table on the pub terrace and put-up no resistance:

“The victim’s face was completely destroyed in the attack, his skull was fractured and he suffered massive internal bleeding,” said the prosecutor.

But, because Hamed had admitted the crime the prosecutor, who had earlier demanded a 23-year prison sentence, accepted a plea deal from the defence and agreed to a 12-year jail term instead.

In the well of the court sat Mr Hobbs’s widow, Barbara, who earlier vowed she would be there to see her husband’s killer face justice.

Mrs. Hobbs had been unwell and her husband had nursed her for many months. He went on a short break without her and, because of a fear of flying had been drinking heavily. He had arrived a few hours before he was murdered.

A statement read to the court at the beginning of the hearing emphasized that Mr Hobbs in no way provoked his attacker.

The victim was asleep at a table when he was attacked “without any justification and without there being any argument or provocation”, said the prosecutor’s statement.

The accused had been playing billiards and drinking with his brother in the pub before walking out onto the terrace and attacking Mr Hobbs.

During the attack Mr Hobbs was punched and knocked to the ground where he was repeatedly kicked and beaten about the head.

The trial was scheduled to last four days, but following the accused’s guilty plea, it will now end tomorrow. Sentence will be delayed for up to two weeks.