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Pistorius cleared of murder roundtownnews.com
12-18 sept 2014
Billie Anthony Gaddess and Tom Watt
Tom Watt stars in Torrevieja Tom was turning a few heads in Torrevieja, as passers-by tried to put a name to the face. Tom was giving up a few precious days of his time and at his own expense, flew to Alicante to work with close friend Billie Anthony Gaddess as one of the name characters in the independent ‘The Cucaracha Club’ film. Read the full story on page 23.
See page 62
Issue 778
By Jack Troughton ATHLETE OSCAR Pistorius sobbed yesterday (Thursday) as he was cleared of the murder of his girlfriend – or an imagined intruder – at his South African home on Valentine’s Day last year. At Pretoria High Court, Judge Thokozile Masipa cleared the 27-year-old Olympic and Paralympic track star of all murder charges saying the prosecution had failed to prove he intended to kill model and law graduate Reeva Steenkamp in a case entirely built on circumstantial evidence. Pistorius, who would have faced a minimum of 25 years behind bars for premeditated murder, still faces a verdict on a charge of culpable homicide – manslaughter – which carries a sentence of up to 15 years. The judge, who described the defendant as a “very poor” and “evasive” witness, said the state had failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt he was guilty of murder. The athlete maintains he shot his lover in the mistaken belief she was an intruder hiding in a toilet cubicle.
198 cars clocked and counting THE AGE-OLD scam of car clocking, or rewinding the odometer to raise the value of a ‘motor’ raised its ugly head on the Costa Blanca a few months ago. by Keith Nicol An investigation was initiated by the Guardia Civil in January following a complaint filed by an individual who felt he was the victim of a possible scam. The officers found that the vehicles in question had their records tampered with and suspecting more victims would have fallen foul of such a scam, continued their investigation. The Guardia Civil carried out six searches during the summer; two in local car dealerships run by Autos Corleone in Torrevieja; two homes in Torrevieja and Quesada, and two more in separate warehouses of Almoradi were they discovered a range of equipment for the repair and painting of cars plus tools to reset odometers. Officers found documents, which contained the ac-
tual mileage of the vehicles parked there, as well as numerous odometers that had been disassembled, so they sealed a total of 151 vehicles. In total, Guardia Civil have arrested three people in Alicante and 12 others face charges for conspiracy, forgery and fraud. Those arrested were a father and a son, 58 and 36, respectively, both Spanish citizens and a Romanian manager aged, 50. All are linked to a business group dedicated to the sale of vehicles in Torrevieja and have been accused of continuing crimes of fraud, forgery and conspiracy. Although the premises of Autos Corleone have been sealed off by Guardia Civil, nothing has been proven that management or staff on the site knew anything about possible defraud. Continued on page 8