A chef has appeared in court after being arrested on suspicion of murdering a popular Irish charity worker in a Costa del Sol pub.
Leigh Anthony Gardiner, 49, appeared in court in the resort of Fuengirola in handcuffs flanked by two police officers just before 9.30am this morning for the two hour hearing.
Irish dad-of-two John Pender, 53, from Shankill, Co Dublin, died from stab wounds after an unprovoked attack in a pub toilet.
The hearing took place in private, which is normal in Spain, where only trials are open to the press and public.
Gardiner, who is from the UK, was remanded in prison pending an ongoing criminal probe.
A court official confirmed: “Fuengirola Court of Investigation Number Two, acting as a duty court and at the request of state prosecutors, has ordered the remand in prison of the man arrested in the early hours of Friday morning following the death of a man in the town.
“He is being investigated at this stage on suspicion of a crime of murder.”
The suspect, a chef at a well-known holiday resort on the Costa del Sol, who lives in Mijas near Fuengirola, bowed his head and said nothing as he was led away.
Gardiner was arrested in the early hours of Friday morning after allegedly attacking Mr Pender with two broken bottles while he was using the loo at the Pogs Old Irish Rock Pub.
Police said the Irishman was attacked after politely asking the suspect to stop bothering his wife and the partner of a friend he was with.
Well-placed sources said witnesses had told the police the dead man was targeted with two broken beer bottles as he was relieving himself and had no chance to defend himself as he was stabbed several times in the neck and body.
One of the blows is believed to have severed his jugular vein.
Police, who happened to be passing by the pub where the crime occurred just before 2am, tried to save the tourist’s life but he bled to death in front of them.
He was on holiday with his wife Caroline McGuigan, founder of charity Suicide or Survive, and their two children Conor, 21, and 18-year-old Amy who were not in the pub at the time.
Mr Pender, a qualified acupuncturist who trained in China, was on the board of his wife’s charity.
A source close to the probe said the suspect had no criminal record in Spain and was a chef at a well-known Costa del Sol hotel resort and was on his own for a few days because his wife and kids had gone on a foreign holiday.
