Spain murder trial told of arrest

The two defendants posed as villa owners, the court heard

A man jointly accused of murdering a British couple house-hunting in Spain told police: 'I know what I have done,' a Spanish court has heard.

Officers told the court in Alicante they also feared for their lives when they arrested Jorge Real Sierra, 56.

Real and co-accused Venezuelan Juan Antonio Velazquez Gonzalez deny killing Linda and Anthony 0'Malley, from Llangollen, north Wales, in 2002.

Their bodies were found in a cellar near Benidorm in March 2003.

The two Venezuelan men are accused of tricking the couple into visiting a house which was supposedly for sale.

They later kidnapped the couple, who were originally from Liverpool, and forced them to withdraw over £19,000 (about 28,000 euros) from their bank account.

Mrs O'Malley, 55, is said to have died of shock because of her treatment when held captive. Her 42-year-old husband, a car salesman, was asphyxiated with a plastic bag, the court has heard.

Anthony and Linda O'Malley were found dead in March 2003

Giving evidence on the second day of the murder trial, an unnamed officer told the court how Real, 56, was arrested while behind the wheel of a grey BMW car.

He said Real reached for a bag on the front passenger seat of the vehicle but stopped after officers put their guns to his head.

The bag turned out to contain a pistol, a false police badge, documents and other items.

The officer said: "It took us about 15 seconds to detain him. If we had been any slower one of us would have been dead, I'm sure of that."

Another officer told the court how when Real was brought to a police station, he had said: "I know what I have done, I just want to talk with your boss."

The couple's family are following the trial through an interpreter

A detective, who was also not named, told the court Real and his brother-in-law Velazquez had been traced to an apartment on the edge of Valencia, 80 miles (50km) north of Benidorm.

They were arrested within minutes of each other after British police informed their Spanish counterparts an e-mail had been sent to the UK about the O'Malleys.

The e-mail had been sent from an internet cafe in Valencia where a description given by staff a South American man matched that of a man who had fraudulently used Mr O'Malley's credit card.

On Tuesday, the court heard how Real had tried to obtain thousands of pounds from the couple's family by offering to act as a hostage negotiator, initially asking for £8,000 (11,600 euros) but stipulating he would want more if the couple were freed.

The O'Malleys' bodies were found under a concrete floor

His offer came five months after he and his brother-in-law were alleged to have murdered and buried the couple and stolen £19,400 (28,000 euros) from them.

After an exchange of e-mails and telephone calls, police obtained Real's telephone number and tracked the pair down, the court was told.

The O'Malleys had travelled to Spain in August 2002 to look for a retirement home on the Costa Blanca.

They disappeared a month later and were the subject of a missing persons' inquiry for six months before Spanish police found the couple's bodies.

The trial has been adjourned until Thursday.