What first was reported as a mugging appears to be an act of revenge by the father of a murdered 4-year-old girl.

The ‘mugging’ took place last Thursday on Calle Pedro Antonio de Alarcón in Granada and involved a 70-year-old man who claimed to have defended himself against a knife attack by a 54-year-old mugger; that was, at least, what the elder man claimed, but in reality, perhaps, it goes back to Huétor Santillán in 1985 and the sexual abuse and murder of a small girl.

The man who the elderly man claimed had mugged him had just come out of jail after serving almost 33 years of a 40-year life sentence – the case had rocked the province and was one of the most notorious crimes of 20th Century Granada.

The girl had been reported missing and then just a few days later her body had been found by police at the bottom of a well on a disused farm. The suspect, who is a cousin of the mother, had broken down under questioning and confessed to the crime.

But the family of the tiny victim had never forgotten nor forgiven, so 33 years later, on a central street in Granada, the father and the murderer came face to face, with both armed with knives.

When the police arrested both of them, the father refused to make a statement whilst the ‘mugger’/child murderer made no mention of what had happened back in 1985, he simply said that he had been set upon by the elder man (the father of the murdered girl).

The two men will have to appear before a magistrate because although the versions of what happened on Thursday are contradictory; both accusing the other of having been attacked, the real reason and motives are apparent, so it is unlikely that anything will come of it. Perhaps there will be a court order against the father to prevent him from approaching the ex-convict… Yet perhaps this might not be the last encounter, either.

>Editorial comment: it should be clarified that the 70-year-old father of the murdered child had probably deliberately sought out the now-released child-murderer and found him on the said street. It is likely that the father’s claim that the other man had attempted to mug him (hence the use of the term ‘mugger’ in the article) was false. The truth behind the encounter, in which both men sustained knife injuries, has yet to be clarified by a judge.

(News: Huétor Santillán, Granada, Andalucia)