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Martin Fitzpatrick after the slash attack
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Martin Fitzpatrick
A crazed Moroccan mob tried to kill terminally ill teenager Martin Fitzpatrick on the Costa del Sol.
He suffered multiple stab injuries when they knifed him in the kidneys and lung, and tried to slit his throat.
His courageous family rushed to the rescue but now Spanish cops want THEM in the dock.
And they’ve stuck them on an international ‘WANTED’ list.
What Martin’s mother Celine now calls ‘the ultimate Holiday from Hell’ was triggered when big Martin, now 19, and who suffers from deadly primary immunodeficiency, was holidaying with his family on a dream trip to Benidorm in the summer of 2012.
The nightmare erupted when Martin, who was 17 at the time, and his brother Daniel Murphy, who was then 24, were jumped by a gang of street thugs from Morocco.
But Martin, who bravely survived TWO deadly attacks by the gang in the space of 24 hours, still stands proudly defiant today – saying that neither the Moroccan mob murder attempt, nor his terminal illness,will stop him defending the loyal family who came to his aid and saved his life.
In an exclusive interview with the Sunday World, Martin and his mother Celine told of their family’s ordeal at the hands of the gang leader and the Spanish police.
Now Celine and Martin want questions answered from the Spanish government, who are trying to say that that Daniel, Celine’s husband Michael and her son-in-law John Paul Morgan, who was even attacked while holding his two-year-old son Oisin, were complicit in injuring a police officer. The family now say that is a ‘trumped up’ charge.
“It was supposed to be a dream family holiday,” said Celine last night.
“Yet it turned into a two-year nightmare that’s still ongoing.”
What happened on that Saturday afternoon in August 2012, will remain in the minds of the Fitzpatrick, Morgan and Murphy families forever.
Celine explained: “We’d been out for a big family meal in a local restaurant in Benidorm – one we know and love.
“My sons had organised for some friends we have in Glasgow to come over and surprise me. They call me ‘Big C’, and had t-shirts made with my name on them. It was a great day and I couldn’t get over seeing them again. Everything was just perfect.”
But things quickly changed after the meal as family members and friends started to leave in small groups to go back to their hotels to get ready for a big night out.
At around 7.30p.m., Daniel and Martin said their goodbyes and left to go back to their hotel for a shower.
However, as Martin explained, a man pestered them to come into a nearby bar for drinks – and that sparked the stabbing row.
“We didn’t want to go to a bar,” said Martin.
“We just wanted to go back to the hotel. But this guy wouldn’t leave us alone. He was sweating and looked really dodgy. When he put his hands on us that’s when we got into a fight with him.”
He added: “These guys just came out of the woodwork – about seven or eight of them.”
Martin’s brother Daniel recalled: “We were both on the ground, taking kicks to the head. I could see that Martin was on the ground, too. All I wanted to do was protect my wee brother, but every time I tried to get up they just kicked me back down again.”
Unbeknown to Celine and her family and friends, the attack was going on just around the corner from the restaurant.
The first time they knew something was wrong was when Daniel stumbled through the restaurant doors.
“My face was swollen up like melon,” said Daniel.
“I managed to get through the door and all could say was: ‘They’ve got Martin!’“
In a desperate bid to save Martin, family members rushed into the street, dragging him from the beating.
Daniel went on: “We got one of the gang’s ringleaders in the process. I’m going to be honest – we hit him a few times.
“At this stage everyone was just in shock at what had happened.”
Little did Celine and her family know, that their ordeal had only just begun.
“The police just seemed to stand back and watch while all this was happening,” she said.
“But then a man wearing a white robe ran up to the police and started pointing at me, my daughter Carrie, and by son-in-law John, who was holding wee Oisin at the time, and was screaming something in Spanish.
“One of the attackers came up and punched John in the face while he was holding his son. We didn’t know what was going on.”
She added: “The police arrested all of us and threw us in a stinking cell where they held us for two days.”
While Celine, her husband Michael, John and Daniel were thrown in the cell, Martin was released after 24 hours, because under Spanish law people under the age of 18 can’t be held for longer than that.
Martin explained: “I went back to a restaurant the next day that I knew the rest of our family and friends would be in on the Sunday night.
But while we were sitting there I noticed the guy who was handing out flyers the day before, and who started the whole thing was standing outside looking in.
“He looked shifty and agitated. All of a sudden the gang came from nowhere and charged at all of us.”
Martin’s sister Carrie, whose husband John was still locked up with her mother and brother, told of her horror when the second attack came.
“We were being hit with chairs but I was trying to calm things down and get Oisin away from it,” she said.
“I saw Martin fighting with one guy in particular, but all of a sudden his face turned grey. “
Martin added: “When I saw the blood I thought I’d just cut myself on smashed plates when the gang threw our dining table over me.”
It was only when an ambulance turned up to take Martin to hospital that the family realised he’d been the victim of what they say was a precise and calculated murder attempt.
Daniel said: “They stabbed him in the kidneys, the lungs and tried to slash his throat. They only had one intention. Then they ran away cheering and holding their hands in the air while my brother lay there, bleeding.”
As Martin lay in hospital recovering, the family’s ordeal took another cruel twist.
A police officer who claims he was injured during the original attack wanted to press charges against Daniel, John and Michael – and Spanish courts have issued an international and European arrest warrant for the men, who say they weren’t even told that they were wanted by Spanish authorities.
“Now we have a fight to clear our names,” said Celine.
“And the man who stabbed Martin, along with his gang, didn’t even turn up in court. They just fled from Spain.
“We’ve already paid Spanish lawyers and solicitors £15,000. We can’t afford any more.
“We can’t even leave the UK or John, Daniel and Michael will be arrested because of the international arrest warrant. And now the Spanish authorities are trying to extradite them.”
“We now feel like we’re prisoners in our own homes – and in our own country,” Martin’s mother said.