Spanish judge rules out meeting with Kirsty Maxwell’s family as ‘improper’

0 Kirsty Maxwell with her husband Adam, who requested the meeting with the judge in Spain which was refused The Spanish judge investigating the death of Benidorm holidaymaker Kirsty Maxwell has ruled out meeting with her family.

The Livingston woman’s grieving husband, Adam Maxwell, had requested the meeting with Ana Isabel Garciagalbis.

David Swindle, the former police officer who is investigating on behalf of her family, would also have attended.

But their hopes of moving the case forward with an interview at a court in Benidorm were dashed yesterday after the judge said it would be improper given her position of impartiality.

Five Britons remain under investigation as part of the homicide investigation into the circumstances surrounding Ms Maxwell’s fall from a tenth-floor apartment in the Costablancaholidayresorton 29 April last year.

The judge responded in writing to the request last week, ruling: “It is not appropriate for the investigation of the facts and the impartiality of the investigating judge to hold a private meeting with one of the parties involved in this case and their investigators.”

She also urged them in her letter to provide any evidence or information they felt would assist her in clarifying why Ms Maxwell, 29, plunged to her death from the Apartamentos Payma in Benidorm’s Little England area.

Her rebuff bodes badly for a similar request for a meeting by SNP politician Angela Constance, the Cabinet Secretary for Communities, Social Security and Equalities, said to have been submitted to the same judge. Court sources confirmed last month Ms Maxwell’s family was still being kept informed of case developments, even though they were left without a Spanish lawyer after Luis Miguel Zumaquero resigned last month.

The source said: “At the family’s request, the British consulate is also being notified.”

Judge Ana Isabel Garciagalbis is expected to close her homicide inquiry soon unless new evidence comes to light.

Ms Maxwell’s family are appealing for witnesses to help solve the mystery, but have had hopes of a reconstruction in the apartment she fell from dashed by the judge.

The court is still awaiting the results of DNA tests on samples taken from Ms Maxwell’s body to see if they contain DNA belonging to any of the five men under investigation.

The five suspects have been named as Joseph Graham, Ricky Gammon, Anthony Holehouse, Callum Northridge and Daniel Bailey. They are all from the Nottingham area.

All five men, who are back in the UK, have denied any wrongdoing. None have been charged with any crimes.