CCTV footage 'key' to arrest of Irishman after discovery of torso in suitcase in Barcelona
The 51-year-old Irishman held on Saturday has been remanded in custody on suspicion of homicide after appearing before a judge. Picture: AP /Manu Mielniezuk
The Irishman arrested after the finding of body parts in a suitcase in Barcelona had been renting a room at the flat of his suspected victim for just two weeks, it emerged on Wednesday.
Police sources also confirmed the apartment block where investigators believe the murder and dismemberment occurred is just 15m from the rubbish container where the torso was found.
The unnamed Irish national is said to have been sub-letting a room from the German man known only as Alex. He has been identified as the victim pending confirmation through DNA tests.
Sources close to the ongoing investigation, which is focusing on trying to find the remaining body parts, said police had obtained CCTV images showing the black suitcase in which the torso was found being carried out of the building where the victim lived.
The footage was reportedly obtained from a nearby garage and a bank across the street.
Detectives had already been making door-to-door inquiries in the apartment block and asking neighbours if they had heard any strange noises.
One source close to the ongoing probe said: “The Mossos expected a very complicated investigation because they had no fingerprints or teeth which would have made it easier to identify the victim to work on.
“The CCTV footage proved key to the arrests.”
Respected Spanish daily headlined its coverage of the case by writing: "The huge blunder of the flatmates of the dismembered man found in a rubbish container."
The 51-year-old Irishman held on Saturday has been remanded in custody on suspicion of homicide after appearing before a judge.
The second man held, a 31-year-old Ukrainian who also sub-let a room in the same apartment, has been released on bail but ordered to surrender his passport and sign on regularly at court.
Locals say the older of the two had only been around for about a fortnight before the torso was found and the younger man for just a week.
All three rubbish containers on the corner of Casanova Street and Rome Avenue, believed to include recycling bins, were taken away for expert analysis.
But a spokesman for the Mossos d’Esquadra regional police, appearing to confirm the operation to find the missing body parts has so far drawn a blank, said on Wednesday morning: “There are no new developments in this case.”
A scrap dealer came across the torso last Tuesday morning while sifting through rubbish.
The scrap dealer, named locally as Chiprian, told local media: “My work involves going through the rubbish and when I saw the black case I thought I had found something good.
“When I opened it up to see what was inside I was hit by a terrible smell which at first I thought was rotting meat a bar had thrown out or remains of food.
A court official, confirming the nationality of the man remanded in prison, said: “Barcelona’s Court of Instruction Number 23 remanded one of the two men arrested over the discovery of a torso in a rubbish container in the city into custody.
“He is an Irish national.
“The other man has been provisionally freed. No one asked for him to be remanded in prison. He has had to surrender his passport and has been banned from leaving the country as well as being ordered to sign on at court regularly.
“The case is being investigated as a homicide.”
The Mossos d’Esquadra said in a statement confirming the two arrests before the men went to court and it emerged one was an Irish national: “Mossos officers from Barcelona’s Criminal Investigation Division have arrested two men aged 31 and 51 in relation to the discovery of some human remains inside a rubbish container on November 29 on the corners of Casanova Street and Rome Avenue.
“As part of the investigation, a home in the city of Barcelona was located where possible evidence linking it to a violent death was found.
“The two detainees have been handed over to a judge for further questioning.”
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
