Spanish police to investigate death of Scottish tourist on Costa del Sol

Chris Lindsay, 34, from Edinburgh, died in hospital on the Costa del Sol in October last year, five days after police found him collapsed in the street.

The father of three had been staying in Calahonda, between Marbella and Fuengirola, with workmates from the Marketing Company Scotland, which has offices in Glasgow and Edinburgh.

He had become separated from a colleague on a night out and had failed to return to their rented villa.

A post-mortem examination found that he died from multiple organ failure, but in a BBC Scotland documentary which airs this evening, a nurse who treated him on admission tells how he is convinced Mr Lindsay was attacked.

Jose Cabrera told the Who Killed My Son? programme that Mr Lindsay had told him he felt someone may have been following him when he left a bar.

“He had signs of violence,” Mr Cabrera said. “He had bruises in the abdomen and it looked like it was hit. It was impossible that he could make those injuries himself.”

Mr Lindsay’s family also believe he was attacked and have been urging Spanish authorities to launch a formal inquiry for much of the past year.

His partner, Vikki Solomon, told the programme: “If you knew what had happened, then y ou’d maybe be able to process that.

“But we don’t know and what we are being told and what we are seeing are different things.”

Justice secretary Kenny Mac-Askill is understood to have raised the family’s concerns with Spain’s consul general in Edinburgh in April.

He also referred the family to Victim Support Scotland, which took up the case.

BBC Scotland said the breakthrough came when the charity travelled with Chris’s father, Harry Lindsay, to meet police in Spain. During a discussion with police officers in Fuengirola, they were told a judge had instructed the force to investigate.

Mr Lindsay told the BBC: “It means a lot. It’s a lot off your shoulders as well.

“We can just wait now and let people get on with the job. And hopefully, the police will come up with some answers for us.”

Spanish officers are expected to visit Scotland to interview Chris’s former colleagues.

Former Scottish police chief Tom Wood, who reviewed the evidence for the BBC, said it would “certainly” have prompted an investigation in this  country.

Victim Support Scotland said the case highlighted a wider access-to-justice problem in some European countries.

The charity’s chief executive, David McKenna, said: “We do experience a lot of reports from people who could not get the police to believe them, take them seriously or investigate the crime. It’s terrible.”

A spokeswoman at the Spanish embassy in London said that all crimes, including those against British citizens, are investigated.

• Who Killed My Son? will be broadcast tonight at 7:30pm on BBC One Scotland.