TWO YOUTHS TO BE CHARGED WITH MURDER OF BRITISH MAN

SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Wednesday February 10 2010

TWO youths were facing trial for the murder of British businessman Peter Cockshutt in southern Tenerife on Wednesday.

by JAMES TWEEDIE

A spokesman for Tenerife's Guardia Civil, which is investigating the killing, confirmed that the two youths aged 14 and 16 were arrested on Tuesday following the discovery of their fingerprints at the crime scene in Costa del Silencio.

The 14 year-old boy, from Chile in South America, was arrested at his school at 2 pm. The 16 year-old, from Uruguay, was arrested separately at 10 pm.

The youths were being held at the Guardia Civil station in the nearby resort town of Playa de Las Americas on Wednesday.

They were transferred to the Valle Tabares juvenile detention centre in La Laguna on Thursday, awaiting preliminary hearings at the juvenile court a few miles away in Tenerife's capital Santa Cruz.

The Guardia Civil spokesman said that the two would be charged with robbery and the murder of 71 year-old Mr Cockshutt.

He added that the murder weapon had not yet been found.

Under 18s are considered minors in Spanish law. They face lesser sentences if convicted and are imprisoned in separate borstals.

Mr Cockshutt, from Brandesburton near Driffield in East Yorkshire, was found dead in his home in Costa del Silencio on Tuesday morning.

He had suffered two stab wounds to the chest and one to the right thigh.

The Guardia Civil said that two windows had been forced open and that the inside of the house was in a 'disordered' state, suggesting a burglary.

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