A 51-year-old lawyer from Granada was allegedly murdered by a municipal policeman, who was on long-term, unpaid, leave.

Firemen had been called in to put out a parked car in flames. Upon opening the boot they found the body of the woman, so they called the Policía Nacional – this was at 22.30h on Thursday the 20th of September. The victim was soon identified as Rosa Cobos, and when the police went around to her house they found her personal documents scattered on the garage floor, pools of blood and clumps of the victim’s hair. It didn’t take long to come up with a possible suspect, Miguel F.P., who has a long record of domestic violence and is an ex-client of hers.

Back in 2010 she had represented him during a separation in which the custody of a child was involved. The two lawyers reached an agreement, which the accused did not like, believing that the two female lawyers were in cahoots. So, he denounced her before the Provincial College of Lawyers but the case was almost immediately thrown out.

Around this time she began to feel threatened and asked for CCTV cameras to be installed; one covering her garage and the other the entrance to her house. This was because shortly after her run in with M.F.P, she found that somebody had entered the garage and scratched most of the paintwork on her vehicle. This incident was shortly followed by somebody trying to set fire to the car inside the garage.

Rosa had not officially reported the man as she was unable to accrue sufficient evidence, so, not wanting her accusation to be shelved because of it, she decided that the best course of action was not to antagonize him. The alleged murderer has a flat in the same street as her and he can see her house from his window, so it was quite difficult to avoid him.

As for M.F.P.’s history of domestic violence, he went through two separations, and in both cases had court orders served against him for domestic violence. Furthermore, his ex-parents-in-law denounced him for having torched their car in their garage in Motril. The Policía Nacional went around to the police station where he worked to arrest him on this occasion.

After spending four days in jail in November 2011, M.F.P. agreed to accept a long-term, unpaid leave arrangement and he had to hand in his service firearm. The Guardia Civil were informed and they took out an additional check to make sure that he did not have a privately owned firearm.

Soon after the body was found and signs of a struggle in her garage detected, the Policía Nacional started to search for the man’s Volkswagen Golf, finding it parked near the access to the A-92 near Purullena. When they approached the car they found the accused inside in an unconscious state, with foam and spittle coming from his mouth – he had taken an overdoes of pills with the obvious intention of ending his own life – this was at 14.30h the next day. He was rushed to hospital and is now recovering under police guard.

(News: Metropolitan Granada, Granada, Andalucia)