Accused says ‘Irishmen’ started row

A BRITON charged in connection with the death of a Belfast teenager during a brawl on a holiday island yesterday accused a “group of Irishmen” of provoking the fight that led to the fatality.

Paddy Doran, 17, died after being struck in the neck with a broken bottle as two groups brawled in a nightclub in Faliraki on the Greek island of Rhodes, a resort gaining a notorious reputation for the wild and sometimes violent behaviour of visitors.

Ten people, including two described as being originally from the North but with addresses in England, are charged in connection with the melee in a nightclub.

Peter Navarro, 21, has admitted killing 17-year-old Doran, according to Greek police, but in an interview from his prison cell claims he hit out after being struck twice from behind.

Navarro, who faces up to 20 years in jail if convicted of manslaughter, said the row started over a spilled drink. He was struck once but nothing happened, he said.

“The lad apologised and that was the end of it,” he said. “But a few minutes later someone else hit me. I swung round and hit out. My friends also joined in. Unfortunately that blow was fatal. I killed him. I never intended to. I’m devastated and very sorry for what I’ve done.”

Police believe Doran, who had been living in England, went to the island to find work.

Ten people have been charged in connection with the death.

Two of them, 25-year-old Myles Brain and Thomas Delangy, 27, are originally from Belfast but are understood to have been in England for some years. All the others facing charges, including Navarro, are from Merseyside.