AN INNOCENT man spent 18 weeks in Spanish prisons, was separated from his family for nine months, and waited seven years for justice to be served after being wrongly accused of killing a tourist nearly two decades ago.
Father-of-two Darren Sapstead was cleared on Thursday of pushing a young holidaymaker to his death over the side of a pleasure boat in Tenerife 17 years ago.
Briton Garry Walton, 21, drowned after falling from a booze cruise off the coast of the island in November 1996, near the resort of Playa De Las Americas – an incident originally written off as an accident.
But in 2004 the 38-year-old was arrested by Interpol at his home in South Woodham Ferrers and charged with murder.
He spent six weeks in five mainland Spanish prisons, was locked up in Tenerife for three months, and was forced to live on the island for nine months on licence.
And the kitchen fitter even had to surrender himself to an Essex Police station every fortnight for seven years when he was eventually allowed to return home
"It has been absolutely horrendous," he told the Chronicle.
"You keep telling yourself, 'it's only temporary – we'll get through it' but it's been going on so long. I can't believe it's over."
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