Missing father and son 'may have been killed' in Spain

The family of a father and son who went missing in Spain say they fear they are lying "at the bottom of the sea".

Daniel Poole and his son Liam travelled to Malaga on 31 March but have not spoken to relatives since 1 April.

Their hire car had not been returned and their luggage and passports were found in their hotel room, police said.

Sussex Police said the pair, from Burgess Hill in West Sussex, had travelled to play golf and look at holiday homes

But Liam's grandmother, who retraced their steps to Spain with the BBC, said the pair did not play golf.

Kathy Catney said she suspected the pair were "up to no good" and had visited Spain several times in a year.

"I do think Liam's died, I think he's been killed," she said.

"I hope he's not at the bottom of the sea."

Ms Catney has been to the resort in Spain to try and track down her grandson and said she was surprised there were no missing posters in the area.

One barman claimed he had seen Daniel, who has a string of drug related convictions, and Liam but said they were both "wrong-uns".

Ms Catney said: "I knew he [Daniel] had done time for drugs because he was with my daughter that time, we always suspected he was up to no good but again we just didn't ask questions.

"I knew he was going to Spain to meet up with somebody to do some sort of deal. Whether that was property [or] drugs I really didn't know."

Ms Catney said Spanish police had told the family "two or three weeks ago" the hire car had been found in a street near Estepona.

She said the family received a phone demand for £100,000 the day after the pair disappeared and they managed to raise the money "in three hours", but nothing further materialised.

Sussex Police said it was supporting the family and assisting the Spanish police.

Spanish police said the investigation remained open, and they would not be commenting further.

More on this story can be seen on Inside Out on BBC One in the South East on Monday at 19:30 BST or afterwards on the iPlayer.

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