Former rock star sues over Spanish jail hell
AN-EX rock star cleared of involvement in a murder after a 25-year nightmare is suing the Spanish government for £4.6m.
Gary Owens, 56, from Stockport, is alleging wrongful imprisonment.
He was twice arrested and held in jail on remand – in 1991 and in 2008 – on suspicion of playing a part in the death of a wealthy Norwegian club owner on the Costa del Sol. He spent a total of almost three years in prison.
The guitarist’s band A II Z made the UK heavy metal charts and played with supergroups like Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden. Our sister publication the M.E.N. reported last year that he said he had finally been told there is no case against him.
The ordeal started on April 2, 1991, in Tenerife when Gary and his partner Jayne’s Renault car was surrounded by 15 police officers. He was arrested on suspicion of murdering Torbjorn Heta, 33.
Gary, a former Bramhall High School pupil, spent 30 months in high security jails before being released on bail without charge in October 1993.
The body of Mr Heta, 33, the owner of a nightclub and recording studio in Marbella, was found down a well.
Twelve people, including Gary, were arrested in connection with the killing – but it remains unsolved.
In 2008 while living in Poynton with Jayne, Gary was issued with a European Arrest Warrant. He fought extradition proceedings through the High Court and Supreme Court but lost and in November 2009 was flown to Spain.
Gary says he was put on ‘the railroad’ – moved from jail to jail throughout the country – for several weeks before being granted £5,000 bail in February 2010.
He spent the next six years on bail before being told last September that no action would be taken against him.
The couple’s lawyer in Valencia, Luis Tatay, confirmed he had filed a claim for 5.21 million Euros with the Ministry of Justice in Madrid. Gary claims there was an attempt to set him up for the murder.
He said: “I had met the man who was murdered as he owned a 24-track stateof-the art recording studio in the basement of his villa. I was being given the chance of recording a solo album there.”
But about a month before his arrest, Gary claims he was warned at gunpoint by three men – who he believes were the killers – to get out of Sitio de Calahonda, a small town near Marbella, in the wake of Mr Heta’s murder. He believes British drug gangs were involved in the murder.
Gary said: “For 25 years I have been accused of a crime that there was no evidence for. I have never been charged and I have been falsely imprisoned.
“My music career has been ruined and my businesses and family have suffered.
“We want an investigation at national level in the UK and Spain. I have been unjustly treated by the Spanish and British justice systems. We are claiming compensation from the Spanish system for false imprisonment and human rights breaches.”
A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice in Spain said: “I’m afraid that we cannot help you with your request. You should try to get in touch with the Spanish court that judged the case.”