Teen’s family devastated as case closed

THE family of a Dublin teenager who died after an attack in Lanzarote are devastated after a judge ordered that the case be closed.

Derek Cumiskey, 18, died after an assault while enjoying a holiday on the Canary Islands.

The special needs student had only finished his Junior Certificate before the fatal attack took place on August 1st last.

His family campaigned tirelessly to bring his remains home and his attackers to justice.

The Irish Examiner has learnt however that a Spanish judge has ordered the case be closed, saying there is no evidence that the death was caused as result of a crime.

Spanish police were told last week to close their files on Mr Cumiskey’s death and his family were given three days to appeal the decision. It is understood no appeal was filed by the inner city Dublin family.

A Foreign Affairs spokesman yesterday confirmed: “The Department of Foreign Affairs are aware that the case is provisionally closed.”

Officials at Iveagh House are still providing consular assistance to the Cumiskey family by monitoring the case through the Irish embassy in Madrid.

Sources close to the Cumiskey family said yesterday that Derek’s parents Ann and John, his three sisters Karen, Martina and Joanne, and his brother John were devastated by the development.

The family had originally campaigned tirelessly to get the teenager’s organs returned to Ireland after an autopsy was carried out following the fatal assault on the streets of the popular island resort of Puerto del Carmen.

A family member at the Cumiskey home in Townsend Street, Dublin, last night said that relatives were not available for comment.

Chris Andrews, a local TD, hit out at services available to Irish families who lose loved ones in tragic circumstances abroad.

“They have been treated badly by the Spanish authorities,” he said.

Mr Andrews was also critical of how Irish authorities had handled the case.

“The Irish authorities could have been more facilitating in setting up a service for when people lose family members abroad.”

The Fianna Fáil TD — whose uncle David Andrews was the former minister for foreign affairs — proposes to raise the issue, particularly relating to legal aid, in the Dáil in the next two weeks.

“I felt they [the Cumiskeys] were not represented fair enough. It was an injustice,” he said.