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Spanish police arrest British sex offender

Spanish police said on Thursday they had arrested an 82-year-old man who fled Britain after being convicted of two counts of sexual assault and three of sexual activity with a child.

Published: 29 August 2013 14:01 CEST

Spanish police arrest British sex offender

The Andalusian resort of Calahonda where the man was arrested. Photo: John Perry

The man, a British national, was identified by a police source as Kenneth Wright.

Officers found him at the Calahonda resort in the southern Costa del Sol, which is popular with British tourists, police said in a statement.

He initially gave a false name, police said.

The man, a registered sex offender in Britain, failed to comply with his bail terms and fled his home country on March 12th after being convicted of abusing a child over a period of seven years, Spanish police said.

Kenneth Wright is from Holton-le-Clay in Lincolnshire, BBC reported on Friday.

He was convicted in March at Nottingham Crown Court. After an adjournment for sentencing, Wright was released on bail.

He then fled to Spain at which point Lincolnshire Police issued an arrest warrant for him.

Extradition proceedings are now under way. Wright will return to the UK to serve the eight-year prison sentence he was handed in his absence, BBC reported.

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Son of Spanish actor goes on trial over grisly Thai island murder

Chef Daniel Sancho Bronchalo, 29, pleaded not guilty at a hearing in November to the premeditated murder of 44-year-old Edwin Arrieta Arteaga on the nearby Koh Pha Ngan island.

The pair were reported by Spanish media to have connected on Instagram in 2022, with Sancho travelling to Thailand on July 31st as a tourist, where they met.

The trial opened Tuesday on the honeymoon isle of Koh Samui, with Sancho’s father, well-known Spanish actor Rodolfo Sancho, arriving at the court shortly after 8:30 am (0130 GMT).

Lawyer Juan Gonzalo Ospina Serrano, representing Arrieta’s family, told reporters during a break that Sancho had not shown any remorse inside the courtroom.

“Daniel does not recognise he has committed any kind of murder, not voluntary or otherwise,” he said, before adding: “It is a chilling image to see him cuffed by hands and feet.”

Ospina said earlier that the family hoped “Thai law will be forceful, that the truth can be told”.

Detained

Sancho has been in pre-trial detention in Thailand since August, after police said he had admitted to the murder.

Under Thai law, premeditated murder convictions carry the death penalty.

However, Arrieta’s family previously said they would not seek the death penalty.

Sancho has admitted to hiding Arrieta’s body – which carries up to a year in jail – but he denies the second charge of destroying the Colombian’s passport.

Sancho’s lawyer Apichart Srinual declined to answer reporters’ questions.

The Thai public prosecutor who filed the case against Sancho also declined to speak to the media at the court.

The trial is expected to last until mid-May, with scores of witnesses due to appear in court.

In August, police found body parts that are believed to belong to Arrieta at a rubbish dump in Koh Pha Ngan.

CCTV footage obtained by local media showed Sancho and the victim on a motorcycle together shortly before the remains were discovered.

Police said at the time Sancho’s motive for the killing was unclear.

Koh Pha Ngan is famed for its white sandy beaches and draws thousands of backpackers to its notoriously wild “full moon” parties.

In 2017, another Spaniard, Artur Segarra, was convicted of murdering a businessman in Bangkok and discarding dismembered body parts into the Chao Phraya River.

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