Sussex Police in legal bid to take over Spanish missing persons murder probe

Sussex Police is taking legal action to take over a murder investigation into the deaths of a man and his son who went missing in Spain.

Daniel Poole and son Liam went to Malaga in March 2019 but have not spoken to relatives since.

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

Spanish National Police were no longer investigating their disappearance, a Sussex Police spokesman said.

The families were told in May that the force was treating their disappearance as homicide after the pair, from Burgess Hill in West Sussex, travelled Spain to play golf and look at holiday homes.

Following their disappearance Liam's grandmother, Kathy Catney, who retraced their steps to Spain in 2019 with the BBC, said the pair did not play golf.

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

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."

The Sussex Police spokesman said: "Primacy still sits with the Spanish National Police.

"We are taking legal steps to take primacy of the investigation as the Spanish are no longer investigating the disappearance of Danny and Liam Poole. This includes obtaining material from the Spanish investigation.

"Both Danny and Liam's disappearance are now recorded as unsubstantiated deaths."

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