Coatbridge dad describes horror of identifying his murdered son's body

Craig Mallon was killed in a street attack in Spain in front of several witnesses eight years ago

A COATBRIDGE dad fighting for justice has described the horror of identifying his son’s bloodied body after he was murdered in a street attack in Spain.

Ian Mallon said he and his late wife Antoinette were made to view Craig, 26, through a glass panel and sickened to find he was in a “dirty body bag” and his face hadn’t been cleaned up after he had been killed by a single punch.

Ian believes the distress contributed to Antoinette’s death two years ago, aged just 49, but hopes fresh information could lead to the killers being caught.

Suspicions were raised when a group of French holidaymakers checked out of a hotel in Lloret De Mar several days early, following the attack in 2012. But police have never made any headway.

Ian, 55, said: “Our whole life changed from the minute we got the phone call to say our son was dead. My life changed and so did Antoinette’s. Our family could never be the same again, but I felt she was broken. She had given up.

“We flew out there and were taken to identify Craig’s body. We were taken into a room with a glass panel and venetian blinds and Craig’s body was going to be on the other side.

“We knew he’d died a violent death but we couldn’t believe how they presented him to us when the blinds opened. His face had not been wiped clear of blood, no one had closed his eyes and he was lying in a dirty body bag.

“I was yelling at them to close the blinds but Antoinette had fainted. She was out cold. She never recovered.”

Craig, a quantity surveyor, was murdered eight years ago last week in front of several witnesses. A group of young men, believed to be French, attacked him and his friends as they left the resort’s Rockefellers Bar.

Despite an abundance of eyewitness accounts and authorities discovering the group of key witnesses had left their hotel early, local officers were unable to solve the case.

People at the scene said the trouble had been sudden and had been started for no obvious reason.

At least one of the attackers seemed to be a martial arts expert and Craig, who had been on a stag party, was killed by a single lethal blow.

Describing the toll Craig’s death, and the battle to find his killers, took on the family, Ian added: “After a while, a few months or a year, I don’t know, we lost hope of getting justice, but we still wanted answers to let us have some kind of closure. Then my wife got ill. She had lung cancer but she wasn’t a smoker. Our doctor told us that stress was a terrible, terrible thing, known to medics as the silent killer.

“I’ve no doubt that between them, the people who killed our son and those who failed to give it the importance it deserved and failed to mount a thorough investigation also killed his mother.”

Justice Abroad has made more inroads with the evidence available in Craig’s case than Spanish detectives, who failed to bring any suspects in for questioning, even after clear CCTV images emerged of the four men of interest in a hotel lobby.

In previous years, a member of Craig’s family or a Justice Abroad representative in Spain have placed flowers and lit candles at the spot where he died to remind locals the case was still unsolved.

This wasn’t going to be possible this year due to strict lockdown measures but social media stepped.

On May 3 – Spanish Mother’s Day – one of Justice Abroad’s co-founders, and retired Strathclyde detective, David Swindle had Spanish colleagues upload a heartfelt message about the death of Antoinette in 2018.

The post attracted huge interest in and David and his Spanish team are now talking to people who were at the scene.

David said: “All potential witnesses at the scene of Craig’s death have not been interviewed eight years later. There’s so many references to French people but none have been interviewed.

“We are especially keen to trace an English-speaking woman who called emergency services after Craig was assaulted and provided details of the assailant. That could be crucial.

“You never give up on a homicide. Craig’s loved ones still need justice.”