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Boy, 16, guilty of killing man in knife robbery on holiday island
A TEENAGER from Chile who stabbed a Yorkshire businessman to death during a robbery in the Canary Islands has been convicted of homicide.
The youth was only 14 when he knifed 71-year-old Peter Cockshutt to death at his luxury villa at Costa del Silencio, on the southern tip of Tenerife, in February last year.
Now 16, the teenager, who was identified under Spain’s strict youth protection laws only by initials, was ordered by a juvenile court in Santa Cruz, the capital of the holiday island, to be held in custody at a remand home for seven years and then to spend another five years on probation.
He was also ordered to pay his victim’s family 135,000 euros – nearly £124,000 – in compensation after being convicted of homicide, robbery with violence and burglary.
The boy had broken into the villa with another youth from Uruguay while Mr Cockshutt was eating dinner at a nearby restaurant. He grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed Mr Cockshutt, a retired electrician from Brandesburton, East Yorkshire, when he came home unexpectedly.
His accomplice, also identified only by initials, who was 16 at the time, was convicted of robbery with force from an occupied residence. He was ordered to spend three years in custody and 26 months under “supervised liberty”.
Last month a Spanish court heard the retired businessman had been the victim of a bungled burglary.
Evidence showed they held him down before stabbing him with a knife and a screwdriver, twice in the chest and once in the leg.
They were charged with Mr Cockshutt’s murder just days after the robbery, but although they admitted killing him they were convicted of murder after a two-day trial at Palacia de Justicia in Santa Cruz.
The hearing was the first time Mr Cockshutt’s family had faced his killers.
Speaking at the time, his wife Patricia said she could not forgive them.
“We didn’t see them show any remorse during the trial,” she said. “It’s hard to describe how I feel. It seemed like it had all just been a story until I saw those who killed Peter. I feel very angry and there is no way I can forgive them, even more so now.”
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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