Spanish police believe Amy Fitzpatrick may have run away from home.




They said yesterday that they are becoming increasingly convinced that the 15-year-old disappeared voluntarily and was not abducted after leaving a friend's house, where she had been babysittting on New Year's Day.
Civil Guard officers leading the search for Amy are still hunting for a white Ford Fiesta belonging to Ritchie O'Shea, a friend of the teenager's family, who was arrested last week after police questioning. Last night, they released the English numberplate of the car in the hope it will jog the memory of a member of the public.
The number plate is C955 SLK. Detectives believe finding it could be crucial to their investigation.
Amy is reported to have driven the car on several occasions after opening it with a screwdriver.
Hilario Lopez Luna, government delegate for the Malaga province where Amy's family lives, said: "All lines of investigation are open; no hypothesis has been ruled out."
But he added: "One very important line of investigation is that she left voluntaril
Investigators have yet to come up with any clues to her whereabouts more than three weeks after she vanished near her Costa del Sol home on New Year's Day.

The gang’s main base was in Marbella, in Málaga province, and they were closely linked to another gang in Marbella from the Mazzarella clan of the Napolitan Camorra – the Naples mafia. The clan leader in Spain was arrested along with 13 other people in police swoops which took place in Málaga province and the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in July last year, dubbed Operación Tizona.
That operation impounded 60 vehicles and seven properties valued at 5 million €, and also seized 2.5 tons of cannabis.

Gang of bank robbers, said to be the largest in Spain, which is believed to have carried out 34 armed robberies in seven Spanish provinces: Granada, Málaga, Murcia, Cuenca, Madrid, Burgos and Alicante. Their total haul between April 2006 and March last year was 750,000 €.
The arrests have been taking place since January last year, and include two gang members who were caught in the act in attempted bank robberies. There have been eleven arrests in the past 12 months, and they include suspects from Spain, Belgium and Italy, with some of the arrests taking place with the help of Italian police in Naples.

family in San Miguel de Salinas is recovering from their terrifying experience in the early hours of Monday when a group of eight masked robbers, armed with guns, knives, and a baseball bat, assaulted their home on the Avenida del Prado, and made away with the jewellery and cash the family had in the safe.
The wife told the Información newspaper that they had Eastern European accents, and that some of the group held their children hostage in the bedroom, while the parents were told to collect all the money in the house. She described them as well-trained professionals.
The paper said the owner is a real estate agent who is well known in the town.

Juan José Cortés spoke of his anger at the lack of progress which has been made, and confirmed that the family will be contracting the services of a private detective agency to help in the investigation. He said two have contacted him, and a third, outside Spain, is ‘interested in the case.’ The family has opened a bank account in the BBVA bank for any donations.
He also mentioned new police information that his daughter crossed the road after the leaving the kiosk where she had gone to buy a bag of crisps, and said she would not have done so alone, as she knew it was totally forbidden.
In Andalucía, hundreds supported a protest outside Málaga City Hall on Tuesday morning, with others also taking place in Granada and Cádiz. The demonstration in Huelva set off from Mari Luz’s home in El Torrejón, and three doves were released into the air when the protestors arrived at City Hall.
The search for Mari Luz meanwhile goes on, and on Tuesday, apart from Huelva itself, extended to Gibraleón and Trigueros. They will move later to the woods of Moguer and Palos de la Frontera if nothing is found, and as far as Mazagón, El Mundo said.

Juan José Cortés, the father of the missing five year old from Huelva, Mari Luz, who vanished on January 13, said yesterday that he is optimistic for a quick advance in the investigation and that the hopes of finding her well were ever greater.
His comments to the press came after a meeting at the Provincial Police Station in Huelva with those carrying out the investigation.
Juan José Cortés said that the hopes of finding the child well were greater than everThe father, while admitting that the clues did not currently indicate any person in particular, they did go towards ‘completing the puzzle’.
‘There was an ever greater chance that she is still alive’, he said, and called for anyone who knew anything to come forward. He said that anyone who supplied information which led to the return of his daughter would be well rewarded.
The family have opened a webpage www.mariluzcortes.es which has information on the case and a forum.
Meanwhile a large new search is being organised over this weekend using quad bikes and horses across the local marshes. Juan José encouraged the public to take part.

Antonio Banderas and his illegal property in Marbella. Like many people who purchased property in the town, the actor bought a home that appeared to have the correct licences, but later turned out to have received its licence during the period when Jesus Gil y Gil was mayor and the town plans were illegally redrawn.


There's a strong likelihood that many of the illegal homes in Marbella will be legalised, and the authorities are meticulously going through an estimated 12,000 building licences. The ones likely to cause the most problems are those built on protected land or land earmarked for public amenities like schools, hospitals and public transport infrastructure. Unfortunately for Mr Banderas, under the legal town plan his property - which he purchased as a resale - was constructed on the beach, on land set out for public use and so his villa will have to be demolished. It's in the same area as the villas that were demolished earlier in the month, and the local authorities are determined not to show any favouritism. It appears in the Spanish press not so and that the Regional Government is prepared to make an execption in this case. There still remains a problem of the swimming pool and jacuzzi extensions to the property and wether they have been granted planning permission. Perhaps being a famous actor has influence over the authorities or is it the band of lawyers fighting his case.

Audrey Fitzpatrick says she feels ‘impotent,’ with the lack of any positive information, despite the Civil Guard having done everything they can by searching for her daughter, and interviewing friends and family. Amy’s mother said the family will hand out posters and leaflets of the teenager across Spain, ‘from Alicante to Gibraltar,’ in the hope of any information which could help bring the 15 year old home. They said they are aware that interest in Amy’s case could fade as time goes on, particularly after the disappearance of five year old Mari Luz, who vanished from Huelva on 13th January.

the EFE news agency has quoted sources close to the investigation saying that the possibility that she may have left of her own free will is becoming stronger. They noted in their report on Wednesday a comment from Hilario López Luna, the government delegate for Málaga province, that one ‘very important line of investigation’ is that she left voluntarily.Audrey, said in a statement released on Tuesday that the family is becoming more and more worried as time goes on, as they are convinced that Amy would have been in contact by now to let them know she was safe.
The latest news on the investigation is that the Garda are investigating possible sightings in Ireland, and the Civil Guard on the Costa del Sol are looking for a white car belonging to a family friend which went missing after Amy disappeared, on the chance that she might have taken it.

Police hope ex-pats or holidaymakers might recognise the wanted men in bars, golf clubs or supermarkets.
Some of the runaways are thought to be involved in more criminality in Spain, where drug trafficking, particularly cannabis, is huge business.
The suspects being hunted are:
Three East Midlands men have been named among 10 suspected criminals who police claim are on the run in the "Costa del Crime" region of Spain.
Jason Richard Gulliford, 36, from Lincoln, is wanted by Nottinghamshire Police in connection with the stabbing of another man over a drugs debt in April 2003.
Daniel Paul Johnston, 27, from Burton on Trent, is wanted in connection with the attempted robbery of an off-licence. He was allegedly armed with a knife.
John Barton, 52, from Mansfield, was sentenced in his absence to 20 years' imprisonment in 2003. He was convicted for his role in a plot to import large quantities of heroin into the UK between 1999 and 2000.
Police want the public to help them trace them and seven other fugitives thought to be living in the Costa del Sol region of southern Spain.
James Tomkins, wanted for a gangland murder in East London.
John Barton, jailed in his absence for 20 years for heroin smuggling.
Noel Cunningham, suspected of armed robbery, GBH and gun offences in London.
Jason Gulliford, alleged to have stabbed a rival with a screwdriver in a row over drugs.
Scott Coleman, jumped bail on heroin supply charges.
Daniel Johnston, wanted for robberies in Derbyshire.
Keith Burke, suspected of a violent assault in a Doncaster bar.
David Andrews, allegedly smuggled cocaine though Heathrow using corrupt airport staff.
Allan Foster, said to have shot a man dead in a gangland hit in South Shields.
John Barker, wanted for cocaine and amphetamine smuggling.
Chief Inspector Alfredo Marijuan, of Malaga police, said: "British people like to help the police.
"But it's difficult to spot these men because they change their identity and they often have support and protection from their friends. They rarely move outside their own group."







But it has worked in the past. When Crimestoppers published the pictures of the first 10 suspects half of them were arrested within a year

Paul Anthony Bures an ex-pat builder from Kent, living in Spain had been on a Crime Stoppers “most wanted” list before he gave himself up last October.
Co-accused Middlesbrough man, Peter Melling, also living in Spain, had already been arrested in Bulgaria last July.A paedophile chain possibly based in Spain linked to four men, two of whom had moved to live in the same area of Spain.
They are awaiting sentence with a father and son, formerly from North Shields, who admitted facilitating the abuse.
Judge John Evans adjourned sentence for reports.
But remanding Melling, 57, and Bures, 53, in custody, he warned: “These are serious matters and custodial sentences are inevitable.”
Bures admitted sexual activity with a child and inciting a child to engage in sexual activity between August and October 2006. He further admitted possessing indecent images of children in March last year.
Melling, from Urban San Luis, Spain, admitted eight charges of sexual activity with a child between December 2004 and October 2006. Those offences involve four different boys.
Two other defendants, Derek Marshall and his son Graeme Marshall, admitted arranging or facilitating the commission of child sex offences.
Marshall junior, 24, formerly of Ripley Avenue, North Shields, admitted taking one boy to Melling’s home in Torrevieja, Spain and another to a caravan park in Sandy Bay, Northumberland, where he left him unsupervised with Melling.
Marshall senior, 51, of Melbourne Street, Carlisle, admitted arranging for a boy to spend a night with Melling in a bedroom and taking another to him.
All four defendants had been due to stand trial but entered their guilty pleas.
Marshall senior and Melling had lived together in Middlesbrough for years as younger men and may have continued to communicate.
Bures had been living in the Albox area of Spain, with his wife Denise, a chiropodist. Melling had settled in an area nearby and it is believed the men became pals.
However, police were never able to establish how all the defendants had forged their sinister connections.
Melling and Bures both have previous separate convictions for indecent assault on a male.
Amanda Rippon, prosecuting, said Melling and Bures would automatically be banned for life from working with children. They must also register as sex offenders.
Melling was deported from Bulgaria to stand trial for the child sex offences.
All four men are now due to be sentenced on February 8.

Corruption in Marbella: The biggest case of corruption to be uncovered in Spain so far. A police investigation into money laundering and drug trafficking in southern Spain codenamed operation white whale and involving phone tapping overheard conversations between politicians in Marbella which led to a parallel investigation being set up to investigate bribery, corruption, manipulation of public tenders and compensation for illegal building licences. Over 150 police participated in "Operation Malaya" and six months ago over 20 people were arrested, including the then Mayoress and Deputy Mayoress of Marbella. The investigation is still going on, and the profits made by people participating in this massive network of corruption is expected to be millions and millions of euros.

Corruption in Madrid: The authorities of various town halls in the suburbs of Madrid are suspected of accepting commissions for allowing building to be developed on protected land, accepting commissions or being involved in the purchase of cheap land where building is not allowed, then modifying the urban laws so that building becomes legal, and then reselling the land for huge sums of money to property developers. Earlier this week it was revealed that an uncle of the President of the Region of Madrid made an enormous profit on land which was re-catagorised as building land shortly after he bought it a few years ago.

Today El País publishes a conversation held 3 years ago in which a former PP councillor of Tres Cantos, Madrid, in reference to the concession by the Town Hall of a massive property development to a private company is reported as saying "I want my 11 percent of the 30,000 million" (pesetas)"Give me the dough and I'll go". According to el Pais, the ex-PP councillor has acknowleded the declarations but said they were made in the heat of the moment. Meanwhile the same paper today reports that two former mayors of another Madrid suburb, Ciempozuelos, this time from the Socialist party, recently paid 916,000 euros into personal bank accounts in a bank in Andorra. The PSOE party forced the current mayor to resign when the public prosecutor ordered an investigation into possible irregular operations in the urban policies of Ciempozuelos last week and the Socialist party has announced a "Zero-tolerance" policy on urban corruption on all sides.

Corruption in Avila: Earlier this month building on a golf course in Avila was bought to a halt after ecologists protested that the developer - a private company set up by the local and regional administration - was ignoring a court order to stop cutting down trees in a protected area.

The local police from Sevilla together with the International Police Association, IPA, have been helping in the search, concentrated on marshland next to the Odiel river where an earlier search of the area revealed nothing. Five shallow bottomed boats supplied by
SOS Ayuda Sin Fronteras are being used in the work.
Meanwhile the neighbours of the family of the missing child held a meeting in the Plaza Rosa in the El Torrejón area of Huelva. The meeting was called to organise more search parties which will work in collaboration with the official search and police investigation. No statement has been made today as to whether the police now have a main line of enquiry in the case or not.
Local rubbish tips were at the centre of the searches on Friday, including the main local treatment plant on the road between La Palma del Condado and Valverde del Camino.
Divers have also been searching in the nearby Tinto river.

Lepe a sleepy small provincial town close to the Portugese border more famous for its strawberrys than crime was stirred into the headlines when a group of seven people who were being held hostage in Lepe and Cartaya, Huelva province, were freed this weekend, in a Civil Guard operation which took the seven kidnappers into custody. EFE says two of the kidnappers lived in Cartaya, itself, three others from elsewhere in Huelva province, another in Madrid and the seventh in Holland. Two of them have Moroccan nationality.
Four of the hostages were found under guard in two vehicles parked near the Marina Ocio shopping centre in Lepe following a report to Lepe local police from the son of one of those who were being held. He said his parent was being held by kidnappers in the area after being missing from home for two days.
The kidnappers were nearby and were arrested as they tried to escape.
The remaining three hostages were found near a chalet in Cartaya, four kilometres outside Lepe, after managing to escape when the kidnappers left. All seven were previously held captive in the property.
There was no indication in the report if the kidnappers had made any demands for a ransom.

The police investigation into the disappearance of Amy Fitzpatrick in Mijas, Málaga, found a new lead Thursday when a neighbour testified that his car, which he often lent to the girl, had gone missing on 1 January.
The 35-year-old British man told the Civil Guard that he had not reported his car missing until now because he feared being arrested over two old traffic violations. But an interrogation has yielded "several contradictions," police sources said yesterday.
Amy Fitzpatrick, 15, used to take refuge in the neighbour's home when she had arguments with her family, her best friend Ashley Rubio told investigators. The man is friends with the missing girl's stepfather.
The girl disappeared on 1 January after visiting her friend Ashley, who lives close by in a gated community in this resort town on Costa del Sol.

El Mundo newspaper said Mari Luz’s grandfather, Juan José Cortés, spoke of ‘Romanian’ immigrants, who he thought may have kidnapped his grand-daughter out of ‘revenge’ for the family’s refusal to allow them stalls at the Sunday market they run in El Portil.
police are in contact with an un-named person who could be connected with the disappearance of Mari Luz Cortés, the five year old girl who went missing after leaving her home in Huelva City on Sunday to buy a bag of crisps. Juan José López Garzón told journalists that the person is not a suspect at this stage, nor has been arrested.
He also noted that there is no known connection with any other case of missing children, just as there is not, he said, between any of the other cases reported in Andalucía in recent months.
Mari Luz’s father, Juan José Cortés, speaking outside his home in the Torrejón district of Huelva, meanwhile told the press that police are working on a lead, and said he himself had a suspect in mind, although it had nothing to do with the police investigation, he said. He confirmed that Kate McCann, whose daughter Madeleine, went missing on the Portuguese Algarve in May last year, had been in contact to show her support.

Police in Gran Canaria arrested a suspected accomplice of Marcos Javier Rodríguez, a 35-year-old man taken into custody last week for the attempted kidnapping of a nine-year-old girl.
José Segura, the government delegate in the Canary Islands, did not release the identity of the second suspect, although he indicated that he may have participated in the kidnapping attempt.
Rodríguez, the owner of an animal crematorium, who has a criminal record for sexually abusing his daughter, was identified by the victim in a police line-up last Tuesday. He allegedly grabbed the girl, Sandra Domínguez, as she walked home and tried to force her into the back of a white van.
The case has raised suspicions that Rodríguez, who has been remanded in custody, could have been involved in several unsolved disappearances of children on Gran Canaria in recent years, including that of 10-year-old Yeremi Vargas and 14-year-old Sara Morales. Police forensic teams scoured Rodríguez's closed-down crematorium last week in search of human remains.Police on Gran Canaria have been searching a pet crematorium on the Salinetas industrial estate in Telde in their investigations into Marcos Javier Rodríguez Cabrera, for any possible leads into the disappearance of two children missing from the Canary Islands, Yeremi Vargas and Sara Morales. The Mail on Sunday noted that officers on Gran Canaria ‘are aware of the Madeleine McCann case and have been fully briefed about it,’ and mentioned possible links to her case. They quoted a police source saying that cases of disappearing children are relatively ‘rare in this part of the world’ and ‘it is not impossible for those few that have occurred to be linked.’
The suspect worked at the crematorium before it was closed down. A specialist anthropologist has been called in to identify bones found at the scene, to establish whether they come from animals or humans.

The CEO of a Málaga developer and his brother are being charged with fraud by around 20 clients who made a down payment on houses that were never built.
The buyers, who are mostly British, filed charges against Grupo Mirador, which is run by Enrique and Leopoldo Faura, after waiting nearly five years for their homes to be built in Fuente de la Piedra. In April 2003 the victims of the alleged fraud paid between EUR 30,771 and EUR 88,024 in advance for houses whose construction is yet to be completed.
The irregular proceedings also extend to the bank that was meant to guarantee the return of the money should the contract between the clients and the developer be rescinded. Caja Hipotecaria Centro Sur S.A. was registered in Panama and is no longer operational.
A number of British citizens have taken the property company Grupo Mirador and the sales agency Palmera Properties to courts for fraud. The sales company, located in Benalmadena, which specialised in selling “off-plan properties”, took commissions of up to 3,500 Euro from the clients when they made their initial down payments.
Grupo Mirador, which had developments in Benalmadena, Villanueva de Rosario and Fuente de Piedra, spread over a number of small companies, have sold houses, which have later been seized as security against the companies’ debts. They have also issued payment notes without funds, used bank guarantees with a financial company that lacks authorisation for this activity and have failed to comply with the building specifications for their projects. Some of the companies in the group are in a ruinous financial situation, with important embargoes
The promoter Francisco Contreras, known as “El Pocero” upon a sentence for 4 years imprisonment by the Madrid courts, promptly appealed the decision in the Constitutional Courts. He deposited the 1.9 million Euro in guarantees demanded by the judge.
Contreras has projected a town with 13,500 dwellings in Sesena (Toledo), without guarantees for a stable water supply. The project was approved by the previous (socialist) mayor and also the regional government of Castilla – La Mancha.
In Catral (Alicante) the new PP municipal government, which succeeded the socialist mayor who had authorised the construction of 1,300 illegal houses, has presented a new general plan which includes all the illegal construction. The Regional government has ordered the bulldozing of 34 houses, is preparing the order for demolition of another 81. Over the summer the illegal construction has continued, in spite of the previous fireworks from the Regional Government
The PP majority in Orihuela town hall, without the obligatory certificate of water supply from the Hidrographic Conferederation of the water district Jucar, has approved a plan to build a further 2,570 houses on the coast.

This year alone there has been 8,000 missing reports for children.Most are returned within a number of days.Amy Fitzpatrick, Mari Luz Cortés, Jeremy Vargas, Sara Morales, Josúe Monge are part of the 200 children who have remained disappeared with little or no trace as to there whereabouts.Police in Spain are looking for as many as 200 missing children across the mainland and the islands. Among those currently being searched for are Yeremi Vargas, Amy Fitzpatrick, Mari Luz Cortés, Sara Morales, and Juan Pablo Martínez.
The number of 200 is the number of open cases currently to be found in the archives of the National Police, Civil Guard, and the regional police forces La Ertzaintza and Los Mossos. When adults are included there are currently 11,936 people reported missing.
Each year some 8,000 disappearances are reported to the police but most of these turn out to be temporary cases, often of children running away.
The so-called ‘high risk’ cases are those where a crime has taken place and the child was taken against his or her will. These are often cases of kidnap, rape and even murder, police sources told the 20 minutos newspaper.
Police have also noted of late that there are more cases of a custody dispute between divorced parents, and that the numbers show that mixed marriages where one of the partners is foreign, have a greater possibility to end in such an outcome.
As an example of this they say in March last year the police found two brothers aged 8 and 6, who had been kidnapped by their father two years before.
The cases such as Yeremi Vargas or Sara Morales are those which unfortunately are more likely to end badly, and over the past ten years in Spain as many as 15 missing youngsters have been found dead. The last one was 15 year old, Fernanda Fabiola, who vanished in Tenerife in July last year and was found dead a month later. She had been raped by her killer, a Colombian man who has since been arrested.
Gran Canaria is the area of Spain most affected of late with the two high profile cases of Yeremi Vargas and Sara Morales. Just last week a local construction worker Marcos J.R.C, was arrested on the island accused of sexual abuse. He’s now being held in prison on remand.

Operation Ninette, this latest corruption investigation is being treated separately from the main Malaya case in Marbella.National Police continue with their investigations in Los Alcázares, after the swoop on the Town Hall on Wednesday,when six suspects were taken into custody: they include the former Socialist Mayor of the town, Juan Escudero. The investigation is in the hands of the money laundering and crime squad.


A further 14 people were questioned as suspects on Thursday, in the ongoing corruption investigation ordered by a court in San Javier 18 months ago into links Juan Antonio Roca has in Murcia. He is at the centre of the Malaya corruption case in Marbella, Málaga province, and was formerly municipal real estate assessor at Marbella Town Hall.
La Verdad newspaper gave the names of some of those questioned on Thursday as the town planning councillor, Alfredo Blanco, and also Inmaculada Camacho, the sister-in-law of Mariano Ayuso, who was formerly chief architect at Los Alcázares Town Hall and now has responsibility for overseeing public works. He was amongst those taken into custody on Wednesday. The paper said Camacho is also a second cousin of Juan Escudero.
The search of Town Hall offices went on for some six hours on Wednesday, together with property searches which included a teaching academy owned by the ex Mayor. His home was also searched, and it’s understood three top range cars and a Harley Davidson motorbike were confiscated by police.
The Murcia Socialist Party have now named a management committee for their branch in Los Alcázares following the arrest of Escudero, their local general secretary. PSRM-PSOE have expelled him from the party

La Opinion de Málaga reports that two main line of investigations are being followed in the case. Firstly that she left the area with someone she knew, or secondly, she is being held somewhere against her will.The Civil Guard is investigating what they describe a passion motive in the case of the disappearance of the missing 15 year old Irish girl, Amy Fitzpatrick, who vanished from Calahonda in Mijas Costa on the evening of New Year’s Day. This idea has apparently gained support following interviews of many of Amy’s friends carried out by the Guardia Civil.
Meanwhile a 34 year old British friend of the Fitzpatrick family has been arrested. Named in reports only by the initials R.B.O., he was being searched for in connection with two traffic offences which have no link to Amy’s disappearance. He spent last night in the prison in Alhaurín de la Torre after being arrested when he was called in for questioning as a friend of the family.

The missing girl was seen in the company of a woman on a bus, hours after she went missing.
Senora Cortes said: "It's a credible lead for me because the woman gave a lot of facts about the clothes the girl was wearing."
"I think it could be my daughter."
Five-year-old Mari Luz Cortez vanished from Huelva, on the Spanish border just 120 miles away from the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz, where Madeleine disappeared on May 3.
Family spokesman Clarence Mitchell told reporters there were similarities to the Madeleine case but it was too early to be definite. He said private investigators hired by the family are working with police as a matter of priority.
"Our investigators, Metodo 3 are working very closely with the Spanish police in the first instance, and with the family to establish whether there are any links or similarities," he said.
He added Kate and Gerry McCann were "... highly concerned to hear that another young girl has gone missing in the region. Their thoughts and prayers are with the Cortez family."
Both Kate and Gerry McCann have been named by Portuguese investigators as "arguidos", or official suspects, in the disappearance of their four-year-old daughter though neither has faced charges.
A spokesman for the family said: "It is normal that she would go to the shop alone. It is only round the corner."
"No child has ever gone missing here before. It is a family neighbourhood, where everyone knows everyone," he said.
"The family have lived here all their lives."

Over 100 Guardia Civil stopped traffic and questioned drivers in a frantic seach for another child on the Spanish Costas. The reaction was one of disbelief as the family and families demanded a strong response from the Huelva town hall. Gypsy families in Spain are large and have a strong prescense in many Costa Towns and can bring large crowds onto the streets. Not many years ago the police left the city of Granada when there was a dispute between two Spanish gypsy families. The parents of Madeleine McCann say they are "dismayed" at the disappearance of a five-year-old girl in southern Spain so close to the Portuguese border. Mari Luz Cortes vanished from Huelva, which became a focal point in the hunt for their four-year-old daughter.
It is less than two hours away from the Praia du Luz resort in Portugal where Madeleine went missing.
Writing on his blog, Gerry said: "Kate and I were dismayed to learn today that a five-year-old girl has been missing from Huelva, in Southern Spain since Sunday evening.
"As many of you know, Heulva is approximately a two hour drive from Praia da Luz and we went there in early August to publicise Madeleine's disappearance.

police began searching for Mari luz Cortesa, five, a gypsy who was abducted in the Spanish border town of Huelva at about 10.40 on Sunday evening. It is only 120 miles from Praia da Luz. The Government delegate in Andaulcía, Juan José López Garzón, has said that all possibilities are being investigated in the disappearance of five year old Mari Luz, who vanished from the El Torrejón district of Huelva on the way home from the sweet kiosk last Sunday. He also said that information on the case has been passed on to the authorities in Portugal, and that a protocol of collaboration had been put in place.
Police support has been sent from Sevilla, with specialists from the homicide and other departments, taking the number of police and Civil Guard agents on the case to over 100.
A woman who claimed to have seen the child on a bus on Sunday, crying in the arms of an older woman is one of the leads the police say they are investigating.
Officers are investigating a travelling circus in the area at the time.

Mickey Green, 62, is said to have £10 million in cash buried in hills above Spain's Costa Del Sol.Greene is said to have fled back to Spain where he owned a villa. One accomplice says he had 1m cash in French francs in a box buried under the villa's flower-bed.The truth is probably somewhere in between these figures.Green during the 90s lead a spectacular life on Spains Costa del Sol with runners arriving from all parts of the world. One who new more than the others and had a history dating back to the early days of the wembley mob,who had been on the run in Las Vegas with him confined that Mickey in the 90s was heavily using his own product and could not remember the exact location of the money.They had travelled around in Mickeys new porsche sports car trying to locate the site but to no avail.What had seemed like a good idea at the time,the police had just injected Freddie Foreman and whisked him off to jail in the U.K, seemed in retrospect not such a wise decision.Green has always stayed one step ahead of the law, leaving behind speedboats, yachts, Rolls-Royces, a Porsche, a Ferrari, gold bullion, cash and cocaine in his haste to get away.So somewhere in those golden sierras lies a fortune just waiting to be found.
Mickey Green, a British national who lived in Ireland for a number of years and who lost his palatial properties there following a money laundering probe, is named as the second richest drugs smuggler in the world.His last home was Rod Stewarts old pad in Beverley Hills. estimates to his worth to be up to 280 million
Green is now thought to be living in England, having spent some time posing as a legitimate businessman before being unmasked by an informer. He went underground
Irish Police Chief Superintendent Felix McKenna, , described how Green quickly moved to save his antiques from seizure before members of his bureau were sent in to seize them.These antiques were collected in removal vans by a well known longfirm operator from Marbella who lived as a neibours not far from Mickeys villa. Although Green was able to clear the antiques from his houses, the Police was able to seize and sell off his properties.
Chief Supt McKenna claimed, as many before and after have, that Green has managed to evade jail time by, in part, corrupting officials, saying: “He was high into corrupting officialdom. That’s part of his forte all over the years when you read about him in police investigations.
Mickey Green, also known as the Pimpernel, a multi-millionaire criminal who has been on the run for more than 20 years and is believed to be one of the most senior figures in the British underworld. A successful armed robber during the Seventies when he ran a gang called the 'Wembley Mob', Green, now 60, moved into the drug trade after leaving prison in the early Eighties. He now owns bars and property in Wembley, West Hampstead, Dublin and Marbella. In the past he has had a string of detectives on his payroll and has had close connections with the notorious Adams family, the powerful London gangsters. He was named Europe's most wanted drugs baron and nicknamed 'the octopus' for the tentacles of his ever-expanding network.
But Green has always stayed one step ahead of the law, leaving behind speedboats, yachts, Rolls-Royces, a Porsche, a Ferrari, gold bullion, cash and cocaine in his haste to get away. He has worked out of Morocco, France and the US, where he consorted with the Mafia and flew in and out of Colombia before his arrest in Beverly Hills, where he was living in Rod Stewart's former house. FBI agents arrested Green as he lounged by the pool. He lived up to his nickname by escaping the charges.
More recently he was implicated in a £150m cocaine-smuggling ring based in Britain and was seized by Spanish police while staying at the Ritz in Barcelona. He spent months in custody before Customs decided to drop the charges. He is now free again and back in his Spanish villa on the south coast. His options for travel are, however, severely limited. He is wanted in France, where he was sentenced to 17 years in his absence, and Holland. He also faces arrest if he returns to Ireland, over allegations that he 'fixed' witnesses at an inquest.He has visited Britain within the past two years using forged passports. In October 1997 he flew to London to arrange the smuggling of a consignment of cannabis from Spain to London. He arrived from Spain with his young girlfriend, Anita, using a false passport in the name of Michael Durrant. They stayed at two top London hotels. On 23 October he held a secret meeting at the Intercontinental Hotel in Park Lane with the London distributors for his smuggled drugs.
Scotland Yard detective from an elite unit is under investigation after allegations that he was corrupted by Greene. The officer is said to have been paid thousands of pounds via an intermediary, in return for secret Customs intelligence reports.
Michael John Paul Greene was born in 1942 and is described by an old friend as "a good old fashioned London villain. He is your original gold medallion man with a taste for the booze and birds."
Greene began to make his mark publicly in 1972 when the first "supergrass", Bertie Smalls, named him as the leader of the Wembley Mob - then the country's most successful armed robbery team. It netted pounds 1.3m in four years. Greene was jailed for 18 years for his part in the 1970 robbery of a bank in Ilford, north-east London, that yielded pounds 237,000, a record at the time.
Greene was paroled after he served half his sentence and went straight back to his previous ways. He teamed up with his old Wembley Mob partner Ronnie Dark - known as Dark Ronnie in criminal circles - to develop a lucrative new scam. They were the first big villains to realise the potential of a gold krugerrand VAT fraud. They bought gold coins - which did not carry VAT - melted them into ingots and sold the gold back to the bullion house, this time collecting VAT. The gang is estimated to have made pounds 6m in a few months.
While some gang members were arrested and jailed, Greene fled to Spain. There he became a prominent figure on the "Costa del Crime" in the days before Britain had an extradition agreement with Spain.
He next appeared in the headlines in 1982 when he was accused of being involved in a kidnap gang that had tried to hold for ransom a wealthy British businessman in Spain. Again Greene escaped arrest.
He met Ronnie Knight, wanted at the time in connection with the 1983 Security Express robbery. Like a number of other London heavies who were "on their toes" (fugitives from the British police) Greene began building a drug empire using Spain as a staging post to run drugs into Europe from north Africa. In 1987 he was held after two tons of hashish was seized. He got bail and fled to Morocco, leaving behind 11 power boats and yachts used for drug-running.
Next the French police swooped on his Paris flat where they found gold bullion and cocaine but no Greene. He was later sentenced to 17 years in his absence.
Then in California, he rented Rod Stewart's mansion under an alias. FBI agents swooped as he lounged by the pool and arrested him. They put him on a flight bound for London. But Greene simply got off when the plane made a stopover at Shannon airport.
In 1994 he bought a home in Kilcock, 20 miles from Dublin, for pounds 200,000 from a building supplies merchant. But a year later Greene ran a red light at a busy junction in his Bentley and killed a taxi driver. He was prosecuted and banned from driving. When his background emerged after the accident, the IRA reportedly became interested in Greene. He took the hint and made himself scarce.
Irish law is much tougher than British law on seizing assets thought to be the proceeds of drug dealing. The Gardai have sequestered his Irish homes. The Kilcock house is now worth pounds 650,000 and he also owned a penthouse in Customs House Dock, Dublin, worth more than pounds 450,000.

The legal system in Spain has considerable differences from the British system, it is therefore imperative that independent legal advice is sought.
It is fair to say that the system is slow and inefficient and frequently in the headlines with stories of abuse and scandal. Judges and lawyers are often accused of taking advantage of their positions and using the system to suit there own personal desires. It is also fair to say that litigation in Spain can be expensive, frustrating and therefore if possible best avoided. Its been reported that as many as 160 legal actions are brought each week to the Spanish Courts that specifically involve property purchase issues, most of which it has to be said will take years to resolve. Throughout Spain the courts have backlogs of many thousands of pending cases many of which will take several years before they are heard. The system is literally jammed to capacity.
A couple of years ago in an attempt to reduce the massive backlog Spain introduced a new system which involved appointing judges from within their own profession. Junior lawyers we invited to become judges but the mediocre salaries which went with the job inevitably meant that those lawyers with successful practices continued in their law firms whilst the less successful, and arguably less competent became judges.
Finding a good lawyer is not easy and needless to say it’s better to find one who speaks reasonable English otherwise you will also need to employ a translator, which is not a very satisfactory arrangement.

The Spanish police have requested the assistance of the Irish police in the search for missing teenager Amy Fitzpatrick.
The 15 year old has not been seen since she vanished from the resort town of Fuengirola in the south of Spain on New Year's day.
According to the Irish police, contact has been made through the force's liaison's personnel in Interpol's Madrid offices.
It is understood the Spanish police wish to know if any sightings are made of the Amy in Ireland.

Orlando Sabogal, arrested and detained in Madrid . Known as El Socio, Sabogal is considered the right-hand man of Luis Hernando Gómez Bustamante – the chief of the Norte del Valle cartel, which moves 40 per cent of the cocaine consumed globally.
El Socio was in charge of collecting the money, which had been laundered through various Real Estate companies.
However, police are unsure through which companies the cartel channelled their illicit gains.
“Tracing money that has already passed through various companies and even tax havens back to drugs is an impossible task,” a police spokesman said.
Recent reports suggest Spain is in the middle of a cocaine epidemic, with the country having the greatest percentage of users in the world.
According to a United Nations study, 3 per cent of Spaniards between 15 and 64 years of age admitted to having taken cocaine within the past year.
Last year, 50,000 kilograms of cocaine – with an estimated street value of two billion US dollars – was confiscated by Spanish authorities.

This figure, however, only represents 7 per cent of the total amount of cocaine in circulation throughout Spain.

Antonio Herrero, who owned a ham company in Trevelez near Granada, was detained by Interpol officers in the Dominican Republic.
Police believe Herrero, 50, used his position as director of the CajaGranada bank in Trevelez to defraud 25 million euros from his victims.
Telling them they would see handsome returns, he misled 300 residents of the Granada town into investing money into his failing ham business.
Instead he absconded from Spain, spending the money on his lavish lifestyle first in Panama and then the Dominican Republic, where he was arrested on December 12.
Following his extradition to Spain he appeared before judges in Órgiva, telling the court how he fled in October 2004 as his ham business was “in ruins.”
During the four-hour hearing, he said his company first got into financial difficulties in 2000 before he started asking Trevelez residents to invest in Jamones Fernando SL.

Thousands expatriates living on the Costas could see their homes demolished after it emerged the properties had been built illegally.Administrators sent in to run the town hall at Marbella recently announced that bulldozers would almost certainly be brought in to knock down illegal buildings there. Local corruption and the flaunting of planning laws have allowed swathes of the Spanish coastline to be developed during the last decade.illegal developments being demolished years after construction. Very public trials of local officials in Spain are bringing into doubt the legality of building permits which appeared to have been properly granted. ‘Land grab’ laws have seen illegal building stopped and buyers left holding worthless paper and their deposits lost. Around 100,000 illegal homes, including one owned by a former prime minister, face demolition in Spain, according to a new prosecutor appointed to tackle building fraud and corruption.Andalucía also has the greatest number of cases of urban corruption (26), which has seen 180 people implicated and accused of various offences such as bribery, money laundering and changing the status of land illegally to permit construction in places such as Marbella.
Following Andalucía are the Canary Islands and Valencia.

Helen and Leonard Prior sold their home in Berkshire and spent £570,000 turning an area of barren scrubland into a villa with heated swimming pool and landscaped gardens.
The £570,000 villa in Vera, Almeria, complete with heated swimming pool and landscaped gardens, is reduced to rubble
They named it "Tranquilidad" in expectation of how they would spend their retirement. But yesterday, a demolition ball turned their home of the past four years to rubble.
''We were utterly powerless to stop them," said Mrs Prior, who is 64 today. "We had hoped to spend the rest of our days here but within hours everything we worked for was destroyed."
Countless Britons have been duped by unscrupulous estate agents, lawyers or property developers into purchasing homes that have been built on green belt land or without proper permission.
Last November Spain's socialist government vowed to pull down all illegally built property on 480 miles of Mediterranean coastline. The Priors, who are believed to be the first British couple to have had their villa torn down, say they did everything possible to ensure they had approval to build their home on the outskirts of Vera in the Andalusian province of Almeria.
"We used a local builder and lawyer and have documentation from the town hall giving us planning permission," said Mrs Prior.
She added: "About 18 months ago we were informed that although the local council had approved the building the regional government of Andalusia had not." After seeking legal advice they were told that although their home had been built on designated "rustic land" it would probably be allowed to remain. But on Dec 16 a policeman came to the door with a demolition order.
"Even as late as Tuesday we were reassured by our legal team that the demolition would not go ahead as it was against the Spanish constitution," Mrs Prior said. It was not until Wednesday morning when the water was disconnected followed by the electricity that the couple realised what was going to happen.
"We looked outside and saw a team of policemen - about 20 of them all armed - approaching our house alongside a team of lorries and diggers and we knew we had lost our home. We are in shock."
The couple were given two hours to remove their belongings from the house before the bulldozers moved in.Francisco Paco of Irwin Mitchell, a law firm specialising in Spanish property law, said: "Local authorities have given licences to individuals for land that should be protected.
"The buyer therefore believes that what they are doing is legal, but they later discover that the land should never have been built on."

The six people who faced charges in court for organising or taking part in an illegal tiger hunt on a private estate in Badajoz, Extremadura, in December 2005 have all escaped prison.
Manuel Domínguez, the owner of the land known as ‘Los Lunares’, was sentenced to two years in jail, but being his first sentence is has been suspended. Domínguez was found guilty of obtaining the animals from zoos and circuses in order to organise the illegal hunts which also saw wolves being imported from Holland and Germany
Two of the hunters, Tomás de la Flor and David Jiménez, were sentenced to 18 months in jail, and three employees at the estate were given ten months sentences.

Santa Cruz de Tenerife. The Rio Palma,Guardia Civil Patrol Boat ran aground in the vicinity of Punta de Scratch, in south of Tenerife
The patrol boat, which is based in Tenerife is used for search and rescue ran aground around at 19.00 at low tide,
The boat collided against the rocks, the captain hopes the boat will refloat on the high tide after the crash two Rescue boats approached the area to rescue the crew of the patrol boat.

To date 217 tonnes of oil and other waste said to be from the New Flame has been washed up on beaches in Algeciras. The on-going work to clear up this residue from the wreck has now been hampered by the bad weather conditions. The latest arrival on the shoreline has been a large amount of ash. The Gibraltar Government has doubted whether this debris is from the semi-submerged vessel but says that if scientific tests prove that it is then it will pay for the clean-up operation.
The Gibraltar Government has stated that from the middle of this month a new salvage operation will be undertaken on the cargo vessel New Flame. This will be carried out by one of the leaders in the field, Titan Maritime, after previous efforts by a Greek salvage company were abandoned due to cost and technical problems.
The Panamanian cargo Vessel NEW FLAME, carrying a cargo of scrap metal and the Danish Product Tanker TORM GERTRUDE collided in Gibraltar waters, 1 kilometre south of Europa Point, Gibraltar at 05.55 hrs , Sunday 12th August 2007.
The NEW FLAME had just left Gibraltar bound for Turkey. The TORM GERTRUDE was heading inbound for the Port of Algeciras in Spain from the Eastern Mediterranean.
As a result of the collision both vessels were damaged. The TORM GERTRUDE proceeded to the Port of Algeciras in Spain. The vessel is currently in a safe condition.
The damage sustained by the NEW FLAME resulted in her taking in water with Nos. 1 and 2 holds being completely flooded. This caused the vessel to start sinking by the bow, at which point the crew of 23 abandoned ship safely.
The vessel then drifted to a nearby reef, where it came to rest. The current situation is that the bow of the vessel is resting on the reef and the remainder of the vessel, from amidships to the stern, is above the surface of the water.

Moratinos has defended the Spanish government's record over the New Flame claiming it had taken the necessary steps to protect the environment and was taking a keen interest in the matter. The Ministry of the Environment is maintaining a surveillance operation in the bay and ten specially trained technicians are on stand-by to deal with any pollution threat.

Mrs Audrey Fitzpatrick denies clothing belonging to her missing daughter has so far been found in police searches.The Irish Independent, meanwhile said that a bra and a bag of clothes found on wasteland near Amy’s home, which it was thought may have been hers, did not belong to the missing girl. The paper said she was wearing a friend’s clothes when she disappeared and was carrying her own dirty clothes in a bag. It’s also reported that she had no money, mobile phone or passport with her.A further report that her black leggings had been found was discounted by her mother.
The search in Mijas for the 15 year old Irish girl, Amy Fitzpatrick, ended for the day at 3 pm on Wednesday, after combing the area for a little over five hours and failing to find anything of note. Francisco Ortega, the coordinator for the 112 emergency service in Málaga, said the search will continue on Thursday with the same personnel 250 Civil Guard, Protección Civil, local police and Red Cross volunteers – in areas which have not yet been covered. Seven sniffer dogs have also been taking part, plus air support from a Civil Guard helicopter. Wednesday’s search was split up into 12 areas, including the route Amy took home from the Calypso area to the Riviera del Sol Urbanisation in Calahonda on the night she disappeared, the evening of New Year’s Day. The search covered a radius of six kilometres.

Amy Fitzpatrick is the fourth young girl to disappear in the Malaga area. in 1999. Rocío Waninkhof Mijas Area in 1999.Ana Elena Lorente disappered in Alora September 2000. María Teresa Fernández 18 disappeared 2000 in Motril. Coin Sonia Carabantes in the summer of 2003.The convicted murder Tony King blamed others for Costa del Sol murders! but was convicted by a substancial body of evidence and yet the Spanish press still are concerned with the level of disapperances within this small area of the coast. Sonia Carabantes was found strangled and beaten five days after disappearing on 14 August while returning home from a fiesta.
Rocio Wanninkhof disappeared from her home on 9 October, 1999 and was found strangled and naked. She had not been sexually assaulted.Amy’s family were at the Cala de Mijas football ground on Wednesday, hoping to be allowed to take part in the search for any sign of the teenager. The search was restricted to experienced personnel, however. EFE reports that Guillermo Wanninkof was also there to show his support. His daughter, 19 year old Rocío, died in 1999 at the hands of the British man who’s serving 19 years for her death, Tony King.

several tons of cocaine hidden in a cargo of frozen octopus. Eight people are in custody.235 of the 635 boxes on board were found to contain a frozen substance with traces of octopus, but which also tested positive for cocaine. The total weight, including the ice, is 9.4 tons. A complete analysis of the cargo is being carried out at the Police Forensics Laboratory in Lisbon to determine exactly how much cocaine is in the boxes.Five of the eight arrests took place in Spain: in Toledo, Madrid and Salamanca. One of them is originally from Colombia, but now has Spanish nationality. There were also four property searches which resulted in police confiscating 50,000 € in cash, laptop computers and PDAs, two luxury vehicles, mobile phones, and a large amount of documentation.
The refrigerated container reached the port in the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, on 22nd December, ostensibly with a cargo of 24 tons of frozen octopus. It came from Venezuela and was to be delivered to a Portuguese importers, and then sent on to Spain.
Portuguese police said Monday they had seized 9.4 metric tons (10.4 tons) of cocaine hidden in a ship container and broken up an international drug-smuggling ring.
A police statement said a joint investigation with Spanish authorities that lasted almost three years led to the discovery of the cocaine last month in a ship that docked at Lisbon after traveling from Venezuela.
The cocaine was dissolved in a frozen liquid that was part of a cargo of octopus, the statement said.
Following the seizure, Spanish police arrested five suspects, including one Colombian, and two other people were detained in Portugal.three people taken into custody in Portugal are all Portuguese, and one is a woman.

Amy's stepfather Dave Mahon said that there were still no firm leads but the investigation had been hampered by a spate of prank calls. while they have been getting a wide volume of calls, there has not been one sighting of Amy.
police had confirmed that they had found a bra and a bag of clothes just 500m from the home of missing teenager after further investigation, local police established that the clothing, found on wasteland, did not belong to Amy. forensic examinations have been intensified in the area around the popular seaside area. Due to the three Kings national holiday the scale of the search had been temporaly scaled down but it has now been resumed with 200 police taking part, search dogs and helicopters.

Julie Mollart, fell from 14th floor balcony of the Hotel Flamingo in Benidorm on Christmas Day in what police are treating as an accident . She died the next day.
The mum-of-one was on holiday with her partner and family. Friends are preparing to take her body back to Burslem, in Staffordshire.
She had booked the holiday to get over the recent death of her father.

"The spanish police have been searching, including helicopters. The spanish press have had the story on the front page. The area where she walked home is very seedy, not a place I would want to walk late in the evening. " quote from an EXPAT resident of Riviera del Sol.
Massive Police search operation: 15-year-old Amy Fitzpatrick originally from Dublin, but moved to Spain with her family three years ago.disappeared on New Year's Day after she left her friend's house to walk home.Spanish Police are now searching door to door ,nearby waste ground and the surrounding hills. Amy's cousin, Nicola Donohoe, appealed to the teenager to call her if she was safe. "This is your cousin Nicola, I've flown here today to see you," she said after jetting in to Malaga from Dublin "You can call the hotline number (0034) 686044181. Send me Bernadine's son's name, so I know it's really you. I'll come and meet you wherever you want privately.For the second day running, dozens of officers with sniffer dogs combed waste ground around the area in Spain's Costa del Sol where the 15-year-old was last seen.

Housewife Audrey Fitzpatrick, 39, from Dublin’s northside, said she was starting to fear the worst after not hearing from the 15-year-old since she rang to wish her Happy New Year. Amy Fitzpatrick, 15, disappeared after leaving their house to walk back to her nearby Costa del Sol home around 10pm on January 1. Civil Guard officers spent yesterday searching waste ground in the tourist resort of Riviera del Sol near Fuengirola close to the route she would have taken.
She said: “All I want is for Amy to pick up a phone and ring me or a friend and say she’s okay but at the back of my mind is that horrible fear that something’s happened to her and she can’t.
“The longer this goes on, the worst this gets. I’ve racked my brains for a reason as to why Amy might want to go off on her own and I can’t think of one.
“She’s never done anything like this before. We’ve traced the route we think she would have taken but found no clues as to what might have happened. It’s a route she knows well and involves a walk of about two minutes down a dirt track. I’m beside myself with worry.”
Audrey said: “She was like a typical ex-pat youngster over here, hated Spain one minute and loved it the next. But she was settling in reasonably well and getting to grips with the Spanish.
“The police have been brilliant and are doing all they can to help us find Amy so we’ve no complaints there.
“But we’ve reached a bit of a dead end,” she added.
Amy’s disappearance follows reports of a suspected paedophile targeting local children.
Several locals say a man in a white van has been spotted trying to pick up children and take them away.
Audrey was last night preparing to distribute hundreds of appeal posters showing her daughter’s face around the area with Amy’s step-father, Dave McMahon.
Amy’s older brother Dean, 17, spent the day taking police to see friends and find out if they had been in contact.
A police helicopter spent yesterday morning flying over waste ground behind Amy’s home.
The green-belt land, sandwiched between a motorway running along the Costa del Sol and houses leading down to the Mediterranean, is popular with local dog walkers.
Amy, who has dark, shoulder-length hair, was wearing a black jacket, dark tracksuit bottoms, a black Diesel T-shirt and black furry boots, when she was last seen.
Police have spoken to the Spanish man and his English ex-pat wife she was babysitting for before she went missing.
Amy’s step-father, who also comes from Dublin and works as an estate agent on the Costa del Sol, was last night too upset to speak.
Amy moved with her family to the Costa del Sol from her native Dublin three-and-a-half years ago.
Family pal, Ritchie Harris, from London, said: “Her family are beside themselves with worry. It was only a 10-minute walk home from the house where she was babysitting. She left about 10pm on New Year’s Day and hasn’t been seen or heard from since.
“Obviously we’re trying not to, but at the back of your mind in situations like this you always fear the worst. Amy is a very pretty girl and although she’s mature for her age and likes to mix with an older crowd, she’s only 15 and still very much of a youngster.”
Mr Harris said: “I’ve spent the night looking through Amy’s emails and speaking to her friends on MSN Messenger for any clues as to what might have happened to her.”

A man has been arrested in connection with the death of a British woman in southern Spain, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said.
The body of 42-year-old Deborah Hatto was reportedly found stabbed at her home on the Costa del Sol in Coin, near Malaga, in the early hours of Friday morning.
Reports from Spain say Ms Hatto's 59-year-old German partner was arrested at the house by the Civil Guard and is to appear before an investigating judge.
A spokesman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said the next of kin have been informed of the death of Ms Hatto, who is believed to be from West Sussex. Reports indicate that the aggressor stabbed his victim in the heart.
He said: "There was an incident and a male suspect has been arrested in connection with it.
"Consular officials are providing assistance and are in contact with the Spanish authorities and Sussex Police.
UPDATE
Jimmie Welles:Ms Hatto's 59-year-old German partner Jimmie Welles, originally from Frankfurt, was arrested at the house by the Civil Guard and is to appear before an investigating judge.

Miguel ángel Jiménez,Malaga golfer whose home is in Churriana, was burgled while he was out for dinner with his family. He returned home to find that a BMW, valued at more than 30,000 euros, had gone, along with jewels and a collection of valuable watches.

The blaze which destroyed 600 hectares was started by a spark from a hire car engine
The Junta de Andalucía is to receive 2.5 million € compensation for a forest fire in the Sierra de Mijas in 2001 to cover the cost of the fire fighting effort, as well as the reforestation of 590 hectares of public land. The money will be paid by the company, Volksfürge, the insurers of the rental car which started the fire, and is said by 20 minutos to be the first agreement of its type.
The fire started late on 28th July 2001 when the car broke down on the road to Coín. A spark from the smoking engine started the first flames, which rapidly spread in winds of more than 40 kph, and caused 300 people to be evacuated from their homes.
The blaze destroyed 600 hectares before it was finally extinguished several days later.fires in Istán and Casares were both started through negligence
Police have made two arrests in connection with two forest fires in Málaga province which were both started through negligence.
A fire which broke out in Istán was brought under control after four hours after destroying an estimated 20 hectares. The person believed to be responsible for starting the blaze was, according to a report in Diario Sur, using an electric saw without proper fire prevention precautions.
Another arrest was made in connection with a fire which destroyed 2.5 hectares in the Baños de la Hedionda area of Casares on 7th August. It is the second arrest in the case.
And in Benaoján, the authorities are still investigating the cause of a blaze which destroyed two hectares in the Cueva del Gato area on Tuesday.

police arrested 13 people in the culmination of an operation which began in Torremolinos, Málaga province, some months ago. Officers discovered a cocaine laboratory set up in Madrid in this second phase, and arrested suspects from the Dominican Republic, Nigeria, Venezuela, Colombia and Spain. They seized 10 kilos of cocaine, together with another 100 kilos of substances which would have been used to cut the drug. Organised Crime and Drugs Squad, and seized 2.7 kilos of cannabis with a street value of 15 million €. The drugs were brought in through the coasts of Alicante and Almería, and stored in premises in Villena, Alicante, the Valencia town of Alberic, and in a warehouse on an Alicante industrial estate, before being sold on in Spain, France and Holland. Dutch-registered vehicle was intercepted after loading up with 350 kilos of cannabis at the Alicante warehouse, and its two drivers, both from Holland, were taken into custody. A further 1.7 tons of cannabis were found stored in the warehouse, and other smaller amounts in three other vehicles intercepted in Alberic and Villena, together with more than half a ton found in a house in Alberic. It’s understood the remaining suspects are 16 Moroccan nationals and one from Lithuania.seized 33 kilos of heroin, in a two-phase operation carried out by National Police from Madrid, Murcia and Alicante, where 10 suspected members of an international network were taken into custody. Four suspects are said to be from Eastern Europe, with another six from Spain.
The Interior Ministry says the end product was mainly distributed in the Madrid Region, Barcelona, Santander

Gwilym Rhys-Jones from the Costa del Sol Action Group said: “Once again we have this dreadful scenario in which honest and hard-working people are conned into parting with their life savings, thinking they are buying their dream home in the sun for holidays and eventual retirement.
“All the paperwork looks good on the face of it with even the name of a major Spanish bank on documents appearing to be backing the operation.
“There is enough money missing to interest the UK police who are investigating the case and one can only hope the perpetrators will be caught and made to disgorge whatever money they have that belongs to these innocent people.”Now, the group, who include residents in Mollina and Fuente de Piedra, have joined up with the Costa del Sol Action Group to seek damages.
“We are gathering together as many people as we can who have ostensibly been defrauded by Palmera Properties and its associates,”
“We are gathering together as many people as we can who have ostensibly been defrauded by Palmera Properties and its associates,” said lawyer Gwilym Rhys-Jones.
“The class action is now in its final stages with prison sentences and restitution orders expected for the miscreants.”
The move comes after hundreds of Britons spent a fortune on dream holiday homes, many of which have still not been built three years on.
Police are investigating a real estate company after its four directors apparently fled owing clients thousands of euros.
Ideal Spain marketed off-plan property across Andalucia until the company’s mystery disappearance early this year.
Detectives in Essex are now probing whether the directors took deposits illegally.
Scores of clients have complained that the company, which had its headquarters in Southend on Sea, took thousands for homes that remain unfinished or even un-built.